
Class L 

Book J2 



OopightN . 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE TEACHER AT WORK 



A Manual of Suggestions and Directions 



FOR 



Public School Instruction 



BY 



WILBUR H. BENDER, Ph. B. 

Supervisor Advanced Training Department, 

Iowa State Normal School, 

Cedar Falls, Iowa. 



» - 



A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 
Chicago. New York. 



LB/02.5" 



THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS. 
Two Cowfj? Received 

JUN. 14 1902 

Copyright entry 

Ct.ASS^ tf-XXc. No. 

COPY B. 



Copyright; 1902, 

BY 

WILBUR H. BENDER 



PREFACE. 



The following pages are made up of suggestions and direc- 
tions bearing especially upon the classroom work of the teacher 
in the public school. While very much that is given is of the 
nature of specific directions it is the earnest desire of the author 
that no teacher shall attempt to follow out those suggestions with- 
out careful thought. It is hoped that nothing will be copied 
directly into the practice of any teacher without an effort to see 
principles that should underly and guide in all teaching processes. 

This little manual has grown from attempts to assist in the 
development of teachers through the actual teaching done by 
them in the training department of a normal school. Such points 
as experience has shown to need most attention have been briefly 
mentioned. The effort has been to guide into right practice by 
suggesting what to do in a constructive way rather than to prune 
by calling attention to faults and mistakes. Theory must lead 
practice and practice must in return illustrate and establish sound 
theory. 

The careful reader will detect that the word, "recitation," is 
given a broader application in the chapter devoted to that part of 
the school work than elsewhere in the book. This liberty is taken 
because there seems to be no generally accepted term that covers 
the entire activity from the assignment of the lesson until the close 
of the following class exercise. In consequence of this lack of 
term this use is made of the word in this one instance. 

It is not possible to mention all sources of aid that have been 
useful in the development of these pages. Many helpful books 
are mentioned in the body of the work. Much inspiration and 
many suggestions have come from the earnest efforts of the 
students who have taught in the training school within the past 
six years. The children themselves, unconsciously but none the 
less effectively, have inspired and helped through the problems 



PREFACE. 

that nothing but childhood can set. The associates in the training 
school, both critic and grade teachers, deserve the kindliest men- 
tion for suggestions given and interest shown. The author's 
thanks are especially due to Miss Laura Bowman, grade teacher 
in the sixth and seventh grades, for her careful reading of the 
manuscript and painstaking efforts in preparing the index. A final 
acknowledgement is that of the debt owed to the president of this 
institution for the patient consideration and earnest support he has 
given this work as to all other departments of the school in past 
years. His clear vision and consequent valuable suggestions have 
ever been at command and freely used. 

As stated before the matter in this book has been a growth 
from experience. It is not pretended to be a systematic develop- 
ment of educational theory. Most of the chapters appeared within 
the past three years in the paper connected with the school as the 
best avenue for reaching the students teaching in the training 
school. There has not been time to give the matter that care- 
ful revision that the author would have preferred to give it but 
many changes have been made from the form in which a great 
deal of it originally appeared. More time would have made it 
possible to improve the manner of statement in many places but 
in the face of the conditions the indulgence of the reader must be 
sought with the hope that he will not let the form of the state- 
ment concern him so much as to lose the suggestion attempted. 

With full realization of the important problems confronting 
the public schools of the land this little volume is hesitatingly giv- 
en the public with the hope that it may help some teacher occa- 
sionally to do more for the children under his care. 

Wilbur H. Bender. 
Iowa State Normal School, 

Cedar Falls, Iowa, Mav 21, 1902. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The lessons that are presented by the following pages are 
the practical suggestions of a man who has distinguished him- 
self as a trainer of public school teachers. They have proven 
helpful and so full of constructive work for all teachers beyond 
the primary grades, that they are published in permanent form 
as a contribution to practical pedagogy. The points covered 
are the ones found most likely to need attention by superintend- 
ents inspecting the management and class work of subordinate 
teachers, while the explanations and interpretations given are 
of such practical and common-sense nature that they will ap- 
peal to teachers themselves as reasonable solutions of difficult 
and variable problems. What teachers at work need is not more 
science or more philosophy, but more real common sense in the 
application of means to ends. This book brings them down to 
the real things of school work, presenting them with the direc- 
tions that are essential to progressive and effective teaching — 
themes that can never grow old or useless as the army of chil- 
dren in the schools must constantly be marshalled by the mul- 
titude of teachers required to teach and train them for practical 
life. Such a contribution as is here made by the author is not 
conjecture, nor theory, but is the result of actual work in a com- 
mon public school where teachers need help and sympathy and 
development more than they do compliments, criticisms, or en- 
thusiasm. The work here suggested has been actually done and 
the author knows from experience its practical value and im- 
portance. It is therefore worthy of recognition as a practical 
treatise by a practical man. 

HOMER H. SEERLEY, 

President Iowa State Normal School. 



Table of Contents. 

PRINCIPLES, PLANS, ASSIGNMENT OF LESSONS. 

AND THE RECITATION. 

I. 

A GENERAL VIEW. 

1. Principles and Practice. 

A 

2. Moving Classes. 

B 

3. Care of Room. 

C 

4. Planning and Assigning Lessons. 

D 

5. Questioning. 

E 

6. Illustration. 

F 

7. Management. 

G 
« 8. Discipline. 
H 
9. Manner of Teacher. 
I 

10. Spirit. 

J 

11. Observation. 

K 

12. Miscellaneous. 

II. 
THE LESSON PLAN. 

13. Necessity of Planning. 

14. Teacher's Necessary Knowledge. 

1. Of class. 

2. Of mind. 

3. Of subject. 

4. Of devices. 

15. Thought Unit. 

16. Plan-Book. 

1. General directions. 

2. Parts of plan. 

(a). Aim. 

(b). Preparation, 

(c). Presentation, 

(d). Elaboration. 

(e). Application. 



VI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

17. Illustrative Plans. 

1. Reading lesson. 

2. Geography lesson. 

3. History lesson. 

4. Arithmetic lesson. 

III. 

ASSIGNMENT OF LESSONS. 

18. Importance. 

19. The Teacher's Preparation. 

20. Attitude of Class. 

21. Ways of Making, When, Time Taken. 

22. Study Period, Teacher's Manner. 

' IV. 
THE RECITATION. 

23. Its Importance. 

24. General Purpose. 

25. Special Ends. 

26. When the Recitation Begins. 

27. Summary and Suggestions. 



DEVICES IN TEACHING. 

I. 

THE TEXT-BOOK. 



28. 


Its PI 


ace. 


29. 


The Good Text-Book. 




1. 


Considers the child. 




2. 


Previous work, new work. 




3. 


Definitions and rules. 




4. 


References to review topics. 




5. 


Sections, chapters. 




6. 


Summaries. 




7. 


Illustrations. 




8. 


Preface and suggestions. 




9. 


Table of contents. 




10. 


References. 


30. 


In the 


i Hands of the Teacher. 




1 


A tool. 




2. 


Teacher's mastery of book. 


31. 


Illustrations and Summaries. 


32. 


Some 


Mistakes in Use of Text-Books, 



II. 

QUESTIONING. 

33. Its Place. 

34. Teacher's Comprehension. 

35. Purposes. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. VII 

36. Good Questions. 

37. Wrong Management in Questioning. 

38. Some Means of Improvement. 

39. The Manner of the Teacher. 

40. Questions and Answers of Pupils. 

III. 

THE ILLUSTRATION. 

41. Value of Illustrations. 

42. Key to Attention. 

43. What It Is. 

44. How Things are Made Clear. 

45. Qualities of Illustrations. 

46. How Teachers May Improve. 

47. Devices Used in Illustration. 

48. The Blackboard. 

49. Pictures. Maps, Charts. 

50. Collecting and Preserving Illustrative Material. 

IV. 
MAKING ILLUSTRATIVE MATTER FOR CLASS USE. 

51. Wall Maps or Charts. 

1. Advantages. 

2. Materials for. 

3. Means of enlarging. 

4. Making duplicates. 

5. Mounting. 

52. Material for Seat Work. 

53. Relief Work, Solid Forms. 

54. The Empty Crayon Box. 



TEACHING IN INTERMEDIATE AND GRAMMAR 
GRADES. 

I. 
READING. 
55. Preparation and Accessories. 

1. Mastery of words. 

2. Sounds and syllables. 

3. Explanation, etymology. 
Thought and Mechanics of Expression. 
Geographical and Historical Settings. 
Questioning Before Reading. 
Recognition of Discord — Helps. 
Purpose and Meaning of Whole Selection. 
Study of Parts. 
The Teacher's Qualifications. 

1. Incidental. 

2. Immediate. 



VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

II. 

SPELLING. 

63. Why Mistakes Occur. 

64. Teaching Not Testing Should Prevail. 

65. Sound Not a Correct Guide. 

66. Teaching Through Copying, Testing by Dictation. 

67. Rules, Drills, Inspirational Devices. 

III. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

68. Improvement in Text-Books and Teacher's View. 

69. Value. 

70. Starting Point. 

71. Neglecting Things Previously Taught. 

72. Maps. 

73. The Globe. 

74. Teaching Locality. 

75. Sketching. 

76. The Geographical Reader. 

77. Illustrative Matter. 

78. Types and Correlation. 

79. Aids. 

IV. 







HISTORY. 


80. 


Making it Real. 


81. 


The Text-Book and Other Devices. 




1. 


The text-book. 




2. 


Other devices, 
(a). Maps, 
(b). Charts. 
(c). Pictures, 
(d). Relics. 

(e). Original source work, 
(f). Pupils' note-books, 
(g). Readings. 


82. 


How to Work, Drills, Reviews. 




1. 


A general view. 




2 


Balance of topics. 




3. 


Germ ideas. 




4. 


Study of documents, election of 1824, state papers. 




5. 


Topical recitations, pupils' questions. 




6. 


Biographies. 




7. 


Campaigns in wars. 




8. 


Dates, outlines, summary, grouping. 




9. 


Reviews. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. IX 

V. 
ARITHMETIC. 

83. Mechanical and Memory Work. 

84. Terms of Fundamental Operations. 

85. Power to Image Mathematical Magnitudes. 

86. A Few Suggestions. 

1. Reading and solving problems. 

2. Forms of analysis. 

3. Meeting pupils' difficulties. 

4. Reviews. 

5. Blackboard. 

6. Parts in pupil's work. 

7. Difficulties and superstitions. 

VI. 

PHYSIOLOGY. 

87. The Body. 

88. The Nervous System. 

89. Purpose of the Organs of the Body, the Underlying Idea. 

90. Illustrations and Devices. 

LANGUAGE. 

91. The Mechanics of Written Work. 

1. Many difficulties — capitalization. 

2. Punctuation. 

3. Spelling and grammatical forms. 

4. Heading, margin, indentation. 

5. Sentence, sense. 

6. Ordinary written work. 

92. How to Work, Devices. 

1. Having something to say. 

2. Copying. 

3 Stories and pictures. 

4. Original written work and corrections. 

93. Technical Grammar. 

1. Early ideas inductively. 

2. Difficulties presented singly. 

3. Purpose of language. 



ORGANIZATION, MANAGEMENT, AND DISCIPLINE. 

I. 
ORGANIZATION. 

94. Organization in General. 

95. The Organization of the School. 

1. A well organized school. 

2. Characteristics of good organizer. 

3. School organization within power of teacher. 

4. Helps. 

5. Evidences of good organization. 

6. The oganism supplying the law. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

II. 

MANAGEMENT. 

96. When Management Begins. 

97. The Teacher's Starting Point. 

1. Confidence of pupils necessary. 

2. Masterfulness. 

98. How Confidence is Won and Retained. 

1. Scholarship. 

(a). Absence of mistakes. 

(b). Sacrifice for it. 

(c). Taste for study. 

(d). Effect on assigning lessons. 

(e). Increases illustrative power. 

(f). Inspires through studious habits. 

(g). Wins co-operation of parents. 

(h). Broadens teacher's view. 

2. Class tactics, teaching ability, devices. 

(a). Tactics, 
(b). Seating of class. 
(c). Definite points in teaching. 
(d). Essentials emphasized. 
(e). Using former knowledge. 
(f). Teacher devising, making illustrative ap- 
paratus, 
(g). Careful summaries. 

3. Cultivated and accurate senses. 

(a). Eye. 
(b). Ear. 

4. Determination, balance judgment. 

5. Force of character and large heart power. 

III. 
DISCIPLINE. 

99. Its Relation to Management. 

100. Why Pupils Injure the School. 

1. Childish thoughtlessness. 

2. Disposition to try the teacher. 

101. Qualities and Personal Characteristics of the Good Dis- 

ciplinarian. 

1. Self-control. 

2. Sympathy with childhood. 

3. Self-sacrifice. 

4. Courage. 

5. Sense of justice. 

6. Regard for rights and feelings of pupils. 

7. Appreciation of humor. 

8. Appreciation of efforts of pupils. 

9. Strong personality. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 



10. Reputation for certainty of punishment. 

11. Optimistic. 

12. Steadiness, firmness, vigilance. 

102. Evidences of the Need of Discipline. 

1. General disorder. 

2. Poor lessons. 

3. Disobedience. 

4. Insolence. 

103. Means and Methods of Discipline. 

104. The Quotation as a Factor in Discipline. 

105. Democratic or Co-operative School Government. 

1. The plan. 

2. Halls and playrooms. 

3. Teachers, halls, schoolrooms. 

4. Dismissals. 

5. Not "soft" government. 

6. Some conclusions. 



SPIRIT, OBSERVATION, REVIEWS. 
I. 

THE TEACHER'S SPIRIT. 

106. Right Spirit in General. 

107. Toward the Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Routine. 

108. In Relation to Professional Improvement. 

1. Teacher's meetings. 

2. County institute. 

3. Professional reading. 

109. Regard for Compensations. 

1. Salary. 

2. Approval of public. 

3. Professional pride. 

4. Personal growth. 

5. Benefit to pupils. 

110. Spirit Toward Parents and Others. 

1. Toward parents. 

2. Toward janitors. 

3. Toward school officials. 

4. Toward strangers. 

5. Toward unpleasant notes, etc. 

6. In social matters. 

7. In relations to other teachers. 

8. In respect to the children. 

111. Some General Thoughts. 

II. 

OBSERVATION OR SCHOOL VISITATION. 

112. The Observer or Visitor. 

1. Classes of visitors. 



XII TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

2. Spirit of observer. 

3. Spectacular work. 

4. Broad view. 

113. Things to be Observed. 

1. General appearance of room. 

2. The teacher. 

3. The pupils. 

4. The recitation. 

III. 
OPENING EXERCISES. 



114. Purposes. 


1. 


Unification. 


2. 


Arouse interest. 


3. 


General exercises. 


4. 


Helpful suggestions. 


115. Means and Materials. 


1. 


Stories. 


2. 


Experiments. 


3. 


Current Events. 


4. 


General topics. 


5. 


Committing. 


6. 


Drills. 


7. 


Important persons. 


8. 


Great pictures. 


9. 


Training attention. 


10. 


Music. 




IV. 




READING AND REFERENCES. 


116. The Teacher's Reading. 


117. Reference Books. 




V. 




REVIEWS. 



118. Necessity and Time for Them. 

119. The Nature of Reviews. 

120. Assigning and Conducting. 

VI. 

BECOMING A TEACHER. 

121. Before the First Day of School. 

1. Qualifications required. 

2. The county superintendent. 

3. Securing the school. 

4. Looking up register and the like. 

122. The First Day. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XIII 

VII. 
FRIDAY NOON TO MONDAY NOON. 

123. Friday-afternoon Restlessness. 

124. Saturday. 

125. The Sabbath Influences. 

126. Friday-afternoon Exercises. 
127 Monday-forenoon Lessons. 



PRINCIPLES, PLANS, ASSIGNMENT OF 
LESSONS AND THE RECITATION 



I. 
A General View, 



1. — Principles and Practice. 

The following directions and suggestions are given as a means 
of presenting a general view of some of the most important ele- 
ments entering into the teacher's work. They are expected to 
serve, within limitations to be sure, in a three-fold capacity. In 
the first place, it is intended that they shall serve as convenient 
directions for the guidance of the efforts of practicians in the 
training school. Secondly, they are to furnish a part of the means 
for making suggestive criticism of the work of the teacher in 
training. This criticism is intended to take the form of indications 
of errors, commendation of excellencies, and in pointing out 
where improvement is evident in the student's work. The third 
purpose is to group a list of the principles that relate to the com- 
mon customs of the schoolroom in a form convenient for refer- 
ence in discussions in general teachers' meetings. All superin- 
tendents and principals are trainers of teachers in a greater or 
less degree. In their efforts in this capacity they will find these 
brief statements convenient in recording their estimates of the 
teacher's work and in pointing out mistakes. Also progressive 
teachers may find serviceable instruments here for self measure- 
ment. The groups are not to be looked upon as standing in the 
order of their importance. Neither are the items in the groups ar- 

(15) 



16 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

ranged with any idea of indicating importance by the place occu- 
pied. The headings are arbitrary. So closely do the ideas in the 
different statements shade into each other in some cases that it 
is readily seen that some that are put under a certain heading 
might have been put with almost equal propriety in a different 
list. In order that the greatest good may be secured from these 
brief statements the student, or reader, should assume that the 
question, "Why?" appears wherever pertinent in the lists. In 
the attempt to answer the questions that thus arise a body of prin- 
ciples will take form in a manner that can not fail to influence the 
practice in the schoolroom. 

A. 
2. — Moving Classes. 

1. Secure the attention of all by taking position before the 
class or by use of a word if necessary. See that all are prepared 
with books, tablets, pencils, or any other material that may be 
needed in the recitation period. 

2. "Ready" — at this word all should turn for rising. 

3. "Rise" — this means that all should rise and move to place 
of recitation. 

Note. — Give proper time after each signal that all may un- 
derstand and thus move systematically. Keep a steady voice and 
a calm exterior from the first even in these apparently small mat- 
ters. 

B. 
3. — Care of the Room. 

1. Accustom yourself to note carefully the condition of the 
floor, desks, and blackboard when you take charge of a room. 
If it is not in order put it in that condition by asking pupils to 
pick up from the floor and desks any paper, crayon, or other mis- 



A GENERAL VIEW. 17 

placed articles that may be found. Erase marks from the board, 
or have one or more pupils do so, before the recitation opens. 
See that the board is thoroughly cleaned and in a manner that 
makes the least dust. Never write on the board with a margin 
of unerased former work surrounding the writing or when the 
traces of previous writing appear through what you are putting 
on the board. Try to acquire the habit of leaving the room in 
good order. 

2. Most class exercises require some use of material objects, 
maps, charts, or blackboard if the teaching is well done. Be sure 
to leave all these in good order when the time has expired. 

3. Let each teacher see to it that pencil sharpenings and 
waste paper are not left on the desks or within them, as this is a 
fruitful source of untidiness in schoolrooms. Except in occa- 
sional cases of accident there should be no pencil sharpening 
during working time. 

4. Pupils should learn to be helpful in caring for the room. 
The class leaving a room at the close of the day's work should 
raise seats and clear desk tops ready for sweeping and dusting. 

C. 
4. — Planning and Assigning Lessons. 

1. Have a well defined plan for each lesson you try to pre- 
sent. 

2. Study your class as a group and individual pupils, as an 
aid in making plans. 

3. Have the plan call up back work or past experiences as 
a starting point in the new lesson. 

4. Be careful to have the plan show a good analysis of the 
lesson and the proper relation of points for the best teaching 
exercise. 



iy THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

:>. Make provision for topical recitations by individual 
pupils. 

6. Have oral and written summaries at various stages of the 
teaching process. 

7. Plan definitely to have the proper comparisons and con- 
trasts to keep the old ideas well reviewed and make lasting asso- 
ciations in the mind of the child. 

8. Make provisions in your plan for having the pupils draw 
conclusions, state definitions, rules, and other general truths at 
the proper place. 

9. Get your plans down to the actual condition of your 
teaching. 

10. Do not hold so rigidly to the plan that you will not use 
illustrations and other devices that may occur to you in the reci- 
tation period simply because they are not in your plan. 

11. Try to have all plans end in some definite results and 
have these results in the nature of applications and drills. 

12. Study notes in this manual and references in other 
books on this topic. 

13. Make careful preparation for the assignment of each 
lesson before attempting to assign it. 

14. Be definite and clear in the assignment of work and 
speak quietly and so pointedly that few questions can be asked 
by pupils when you are supposed to have finished. 

15. Take plenty of time for the assignment of lessons. 
Good assignments save time in the next recitation and for all 
time to come. 

16. Notice that in classes using the text book the aim, most 
of the step of preparation and some of the guides to the pupils' 
study of the part that comes under presentation all appear at the 
time of assignment. 



A GENERAL VIEW. 19 

17. Know the author's plan and lead pupils to see relation 
of each part to the preceding work. 

18. Look for units and have class see what is to be worked 
out next. 

19. Make use of the table of contents and index and teach 
pupils to use these helps. 

20. Call attention to pictures and other suggestions given 
for illustrating the statements of the book at the time of the as- 
signment. 

21. Be interested in the new lesson and try to interest the 
pupils in it. 

22. Make definite and clear statement of "outside" work. 
Tell pupils just what they are to study from reference books and 
where they may find the books, frequently the pages to be con- 
sulted should be given. 

23. Separate difficulties. Attack strongholds singly. See 
that essential points stand out clearly and sharply as individuals 
first and then combine later. 

D. 
5. — Questioning. 

1. Plan questions thoughtfully. 

2. Have a good reason for the question each time. 

3. Learn the three-fold purpose of questioning. 

4. Study the class and individual pupils as a guide to good 
questioning. 

5. Know the subject well and the relation of the parts. 

6. Make a study of the subject of questioning but do not 
allow yourself to rely on questions that may be in the book or 
that you may have prepared previously, following them slavishly. 

7. Try to realize that this is a subject in which all teachers 
may improve. 



20 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

8. In trying to improve it may be well to write out lists of 
questions but they should not be relied upon for the class room. 

9. Put questions in simple language, make them direct, 
clear and as terse as age of class and nature of work will permit. 

10. Ask questions that require thought on the part of the 
pupil. 

11. Manage the questioning so that all must be attentive, 
and mentally active. 

12. There should be a sensible time given for pupils to 
collect thought for answering before one is named to answer. 

13. Do not waste time trying to "develop" facts evidently 
not in the mind of any member of the class. 

14. Avoid relying upon answers to furnish the key word 
for the next question. 

15. Put life and earnestness into your questions. 

16. Show proper sympathy for the pupil in his efforts to 
answer but do not coach him until he thinks he has done the 
work when you have really done it for him. 

17. Avoid over questioning. Ask as few questions as pos- 
sible and still reach the points of the lesson. 

18. Do not say, "tell me," when questioning the class. It 
is not an exercise conducted between the teacher and an indi- 
vidual pupil but one in which every member of the class should 
be concerned. 

19. Beware of questioning one pupil too long. 

20. Avoid questioning the bright pupil too much. 

21. Be ready to lay aside the text book in your questioning, 
but be sure to be accurate in your knowledge. 

22. Give proper answers to all sensible and relevant ques- 
tions of pupils. 

23. Learn to select what is valuable in pupils' answers 



A GENERAL VIEW. 21 

quickly and to give proper credit for all that is worthy when 
attempted in the right spirit. 

E. 
6. — Illustration. 

1. Study children to learn how to illustrate. 

2. Plan from the subject matter how to illustrate it. 

3. Use simple and well-known circumstances and objects as 
means of illustration. 

4. Do not allow yourself to be afraid to try to illustrate. 

5. Ask for material that may be on hand for illustrative 
purposes. 

6. Try to devise and secure illustrative matter and illustra- 
tions for yourself. 

7. Make your illustrations clear, apt, brief. 

8. Use illustration, explanation, and definition, but see the 
proper place of each. 

9. Make all possible use of the blackboard so long as it is 
not abused and made the means of waste of time. 

10. Have pupils do a great deal of illustrating. 

11. Make illustrative maps, charts, outlines and models and 
lead pupils to do likewise. 

12. Endeavor to be able to give variety to the exercises 
without the use of devices that are sensational rather than sensible. 

13. When you find a good article in paper, magazine, or 
book, use it and leave a record stating where it may be found and 
for what it is valuable so that others may profit by your experi- 
ence. 

14. Acquire the habit of collecting illustrative materials at 
all times. 



22 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

F. 

7.— Management. 

1. Know what you intend to do. 

2. Seat the reciting class in solid body. 

3. Have desks put in order for the kind of work to be under- 
taken. See that the desks are free from all books, pencils, and 
papers excepting what are needed for the work even when the 
class is studying. 

•i. Be careful to have the whole class and school within 
range of vision. 

5. Recognize and check inattention at once. 

6. Strive to be able to meet the emergency when the unex- 
pected happens. 

7. Sometimes repeating a question is allowable. Try to 
see when this is true. Do not allow it to become a frequent 
matter. 

8. Exercise tact and good judgement in quieting and lead- 
ing the "confused" pupil. 

9. Be quick in seeing what to do next. 

10. Hold yourself responsible for teaching pupils how to 
study. 

11. Repeating answers of pupils is generally a waste of 
time. Do not form a habit of doing it. 

12. Do not allow pupils to repeat the mistakes of others in 
making corrections. 

13. Have mistakes fall upon the eye and ear of child just 
as little as possible. 

14. Make an effort to have culminating points of interest 
in the recitation. Avoid the deadening effect of monotony in 
thought and action as well as in voice. 



A GENERAL VIEW. 23 

15. Aim to have as few words used by teacher and pupil 
as is consistent with vigorous thinking and good English. 

16. Excuse the reciting pupil properly before giving ques- 
tion and naming another to answer. 

17. Make constant effort to have the exercise call forth 
vigorous thinking by each child all the time. 

18. Study to recognize the difference between dullness, 
laziness, and ignorance, and manage the child accordingly. 

19. Treat innocent questions, brilliancy, and genuine im- 
pertinence as each would seem to merit when you recognize 
which it is. 

20. Be able to think more rapidly and do better work than 
the pupil is expected to do. 

21. Let the pupil's face give you evidence when the lesson 
is interesting or dull, and manage accordingly. 

22. Be earnest to discover cause of pupil's failures and try 
to bring him up on his weak points. 

23. Hold yourself responsible for the attention of each mem- 
ber of the class. 

24. Make the work interesting enough to hold the atten- 
tion of the majority of the class, and then plan for special means 
of reaching the most careless. 

25. Things do not appear alike to all minds or to the same 
mind at all times. Consequently vary your devices, always keep- 
ing in view, however, the fact that all natural minds move in the 
same orderly steps in the learning process. 

26. Give directions quietly but very clearly so that little 
talking or asking questions on the part of the pupil may be 
necessary. 

27. Have a reason for every thing you do, but constantly 



24 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

aim to attain that ''teacher instinct" that directs into the right 
way without stopping- to reason why. 

28. Do no waste time by having sentences, problems and 
the like, read in teaching or application exercises when all mem- 
bers of the class have books open before them. 



8. — Discipline. 

1. Try to understand why there should be good order in 
your room and class. 

2. When disorder begins to show itself stop and get control 
of yourself and the class. 

3. Give attention to the position of the pupils both in sitting 
and in standing to recite. 

4. Say little, say it quietly and calmly, and do a great deal. 

5. Hold yourself and class responsible for good order in 
the halls. 

G. Have pupils assume the attitude of attention as one 
means of getting it. 

7. Have attention and do not waste time in repeating 
directions because of inattention or your own previous pooi 
statement. 

8. By example and precept impress pupils that thinking 
should go before speaking. 

9. Hold books properly, without turning covers back to 
back, and insist that pupils shall do the same. Do not carry 
bundles of papers inside the text-books. 

10. Prevent unnecessary marking in books. Do not assign 
work by having class underline words or write in the books. 

11. Try to prevent pupils from marking desks, partitions, 



A GENERAL VIEW. 25 

or blackboards excepting- when they are sent to the board to put 
work on it. 

12. Make a study of the proper control of the pupil who 
talks too much. 

13. Cultivate the habit of prompt response on the part of 
children, but try to discourage the tendency toward impulsive 
haste so prevalent in this age. 

14:. Try to merit and hold the confidence and sympathy of 
your class. 

15. Except in an occasional concert exercise see that pupils 
respond only when named by teacher. 

1G. Strive to have answers thoughtful, in good language, 
and pointed. 

17. Encourage originality, but try to have pupils think 
whether the question or matter introduced is relevant before 
giving it to the class. 

18. See that all written work on the board, on paper, or in 
the note books is neat, accurate, and in good form. 

19. Be ready to laugh with class when something occurs 
that is worthy of it, but try to repress the disposition to laugh at 
trifles. 

20. Do not be afraid to acknowledge a mistake to the class, 
but endeavor to have the mistakes very few. 

21. See pupils about their work when they have been ab- 
sent or are not doing well in their lessons. 

22. Give children all possible credit for right motives. Be 
thoughtful but not hasty to attribute evil intentions for acts done. 

23. Be accurate, thoughtful and let your pupils see that you 
know more than just the matter in hand. 

24. Be just, steady, and firm. 



26 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

25. Observe the rights and feelings of pupils and think how 
these questions of discipline appear to them. 

26. Give attention to proper seating as a means of securing 
required order and attention. 

27. When the teacher is known to have studious habits it 
encourages the same in the pupils. 

28. See every thing, but let some things pass forever, and 
and others for the time, unnoticed. 

29. Select fundamental evils for attack and do not let little 
matters lead you to become a complaining, nagging teacher. 

30. Correct in private except where the control of the class 
is jeopardized by the delay. 

31. Certainty of correction of one's misdeeds at some time 
is worth more than severity, as a preventive. 

32. Let the well-disposed pupils know privately that you 
appreciate their efforts and helpfulness. 

33. Watch for opportunity to commend truthfully and 
frankly the positive efforts at right behavior that even the worst 
child puts forth at times. 

34. Train the eye and the ear to see and to hear quickly, 
but always with the best judgment possible at command. 

35. Exercise all the faith, hope and charity that is possible 
and still preserve right ideas of justice. 

3G. Be sincere and frank, but do not take or allow undue 
privileges in conversation or associations with pupils. 

37. The manners and language of polite society are always 
in place in the school room, and the teacher should endeavor to 
give proper example of this, and then insist upon a like treatment 
from pupils for herself and for other pupils. 

38. Neatness in dress and in work done will be helpful to 



A GENERAL VIEW. 27 

the class, and in most communities are now required as essentials 
in a teacher. 

39. Use apt quotations whenever possible thus to reach 
more effectively and pleasantly simple faults of individuals or 
classes. 

40. Keep in mind little things that many pupils do uncon- 
sciously, and when occasion demands a private interview kindly 
point out these things to the pupil, although he may not have 
noticed them himself, or may have thought them unnoticed or 
forgotten. Be ready to admit with the pupil that he probably did 
many of these things with no intention of evil, but kindly insist 
that they do interfere with the good of the school and eventually 
will lead him into undesirable habits. 

H. 
9. — Manner of Teacher. 

1. Cultivate self-reliance by the exercise of will power and 
assume the manner suggestive of it. 

2. Do not step about nervously and manifest meaningless 
activity. 

3. Avoid the appearance of being annoyed. 

4. Study to prevent the development of a nervous, nag- 
ging, worrying, and over critical disposition. 

5. Assume and maintain proper attitude before the class. 
Stand calmly and with dignity. 

6. Let the face and manner indicate interest in class and 
subject. 

7. Teach earnestly, energetically, and enthusiastically, but 
avoid, however, the "high-pressure" manner that wears out the 
teacher and wearies the class. 

8. Cultivate the manner of doing things as though you be- 



28 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

lieve in the dignity and worthiness of your occupation. Pupils 
appreciate vim. 

9. If by nature slow in thinking, moving, and directing the 
work of the class, cultivate a manner of doing your work at what 
seems to you inordinate speed. 

10. The voice should accord with the manner. Avoid the 
following uses of the voice: too high, too low, monotonous and 
expressionless, and the uncertain inflection that indicates want of 
decision. 

11. Assume a dignity at all times that becomes a teacher, 
but study to overcome diffidence and to avoid the appearance of 
coldness and formality. 

I. 
lO.— Spirit. 

1. Show sympathy for pupils, encourage and commend 
wisely. 

2. Be willing to do more than just what would seem to be 
the legal requirements for the good of the pupil or your school. 

3. A spirit that views charitably with proper amount of 
good sense and without undue sentimentality removes much fric- 
tion. 

4. An interest in educational gatherings and local teachers' 
meetings is a mark of the proper spirit. 

5. It is the duty of every teacher to have a desire to make 
the calling of teaching one of more worth and dignity in the eyes 
of the community. 

6. True spirit inspires one to look for high ideals. 

7. The person with the right spirit finds much compensation 
in the personal growth that comes from the daily contact with 
children. 

8. The proper spirit leads one to regard teaching as among 



A GENERAL VIEW. 29 

the noblest of callings, and will not allow it to become drudgery. 

9. Parents have interests and burdens that appeal sensibly 
to the teacher with the right view of her position. 

10. Janitors and others about the building will have the 
hearty sympathy of the thoughtful teacher, and will be treated 
accordingly. 

11. Appreciation of the honest, self-sacrificing member of 
the school board is an element in the right spirit of the teacher. 

12. Instead of being annoyed by every caller the cheerful 
spirited person sets about getting something from every one with 
whom he comes in contact. 

13. Patience in answering provoking missives, enduring 
complaints, and meeting little annoyances, is not all in the hands 
of the teacher. Business and professional men and others have 
something of the kind to do also. 

14. It is a good thing to be able to eliminate self and to 
deal with all questions officially for the good of the pupil, class, 
school, community. 

15. The teacher of the right spirit is also a student of the 
child, not as a mystery to be feared or a thing to use experiment- 
ally, but as a fellow being to be respected, loved and led. 

j- 

11.— Observation of the Teaching of Others. 

1. Assume the attitude of a learner and not that of a critic 
if you would get the most from observation. 

2. Try to see why each move is made by the teacher and 
the pupil, but do not reach definite conclusions until you have 
seen the exercise completed. 

3. Notice errors but do not allow them to monopolize your 
mind so fully that nothing else can find a place. 



30 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

4. Try to see what steps are taken of the four suggested in 
the lesson plans. 

5. Avoid the notion that school work to be good must be 
spectacular. An occasional exercise may be "showy," but such 
things long continued lead away from the more serious occupa- 
tions of the school. 

6. Take a broad and generous view of all that you see and 
do not condemn utterly all that at first sight may seem to be bad. 

7. Observe the condition of the room, attitude of pupils and 
such other points as you find applicable from the suggestions 
given in the "general suggestions." 

8. Notice the question of discipline and see where the man- 
agement or instruction could have been made to aid in securing 
better results in that line. 

9. Do not observe with a view to finding points that are 
valuable to you chiefly because they are about as bad as the 
things you do. 

10. Make specific criticisms and do not allow them to escape 
you by trying to remember them without writing them out. 

11. Systematize your suggestions from the observation les- 
sons and be able to give good defense of the position you take. 

K. 
12. — Miscellaneous. 

1. Know the names of pupils as soon as possible. Use roll 
book and call the names until all are learned. 

2. Keep record of tardiness in your roll book. 

3. Written reviews come best when topics have been fin- 
ished rather than by time periods. Do not form the habit of 
leaving things to be taken up in review. The most helpful re- 
views are those that are taken in the way of preparing the mind 
of the pupil for each new lesson daily. 



A GENERAL VIEW. 31 

4. Mark mistakes on all written work returned to the class, 
but put no grades on papers handed to pupils. At the end of the 
month or term, pupils have a right to a statement of the estimate 
put upon their work if they or their parents desire it. 

5. Record your estimate of work of class about twice a week, 
but not during recitation period. Look over the class list at your 
room and determine the relative excellence of the work when 
not concerned with the thought of the individual class exercise. 
Report occasionally at the supervisor's office those doing very 
strong or very poor work, with your conclusions as to the reasons 
for the poor work. 

6. Make a careful effort to have your pupils realize just 
where their knowledge leaves off and their ignorance begins. 

7. Remember in all teaching that it is possible for the pre- 
sentation to classes to be in opposition to the scientifically logical 
order of considering the topics. In other words, a proper recog- 
nition of the principle of "point of contact in teaching" very often 
violates the scientific order of classification. A subject treated 
in pedagogical order is not in consequence presented in its 
scientific order. 

8. Be careful that the teaching of each subject is made to 
strengthen what is done in other related subjects. Written work- 
in arithmetic, geography, or history should not give the pupil 
an opportunity to violate what he is taught in penmanship and 
language. Reading and spelling should be made stronger by the 
care given to them in the other subjects. 

9. In all subjects give especial attention to neatness and 
artistic arrangement of all written work on the blackboard, or on 
paper. Accept no productions written on paper with serrated 
ends or edges made so by tearing from the note-book or tablet. 
Be sure that the teacher "practices as she preaches" in all these 
particulars. 



32 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

10. In correcting- manuscripts, especially misspelled words 
but also in other cases when possible, the correction may well 
be put on the line in which the error occurs but in the margin 
with no mark to call unnecessary attention to the incorrect form. 
Have the pupil give his attention to the correct form. Corrections 
should generally be in colored ink or pencil so that they may be 
readily recognized. 

11. It is not the purpose of the training school to restrain, 
to discourage, or to crush individuality. The effort will be made 
to give all suggestions in the kindliest spirit and it is hoped that 
what is done will be understood as suggestive rather than final. 

12. In trying to make criticisms helpful the following points 
may be observed: Do not worry over them, but give them care- 
ful thought, trying to find the remedy that will most readily re- 
move the evil. Do not ignore or forget the help that has been 
offered you. Ask questions about the work when you do not 
understand. Be "professionally inquisitive." Look for funda- 
mental principles that form the foundation of a sound practice 
instead of dissipating the energies upon individual difficulties. 

13. By means of quotation of the brief statements of the 
preceding pages and through written remarks of their own, 
practicians will file on the desk of the supervisor at the opening 
of each school week the criticism made upon their work of the 
past week by the critic teachers, or supervisor. 

14. In making these notes the following signs will be used: 
The letter at the head of the list is first given, next the Arabic 
numeral of the particular principle in question under that topic, 
and this is to be followed by the Roman numeral I., II., III., or IV. 
The Roman "I." shall signify, "Not strong in this particular," 
"11.," improving, "III.," commendable, "IV.," very strong. A 
record made in this way would appear somewhat as follows: 
"D., II, I.," and would be read, "Management in questioning is not 
such as to require the attention of all." If it were reported, 
"D., ii. III." the interpretation should be about like this: 



A GENERAL VIEW. 83 

"Worthy of commendation for ability to secure and hold the 
attention of all to the questions asked." Thus in very few signs 
suggestions and criticisms and their transmission can readily be 
made. It is not assumed that every thing can be covered in this 
way, but enough can be done to reduce the writing very materi- 
ally. Another way to use these brief statements is by simply 
mentioning the letter at the head of the list and giving the num- 
ber, as, G— 7, D— 3. 



84 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

II. 

THE LESSON PLAN. 

13. — Necessity of Planning. 

This is not a world of chance. All things are done in accord- 
ance with some preconceived theory or plan. No architect 
attempts to rear a building without previously considering the 
plans carefully. Any large business corporation must have some 
one to act as the head and make the plans that others as mere 
instruments then carry forward. The teacher is both head and 
instrument in the operations of the schoolroom and must there- 
fore make and execute plans wisely if best results are to follow. 
Aimless lesson hearing is not teaching. The good teacher now 
carefully looks over his material as embodied in subject matter 
and learner, and prepares to build thoughtfully the proper asso- 
ciations in the mind and life of the child instead of regarding his 
office fulfilled when he has tested what the pupil has done for 
himself through his efforts in the study period. No matter how 
often the subject is recanvassed the growing teacher will have 
something to do each time, for his present attainments can not 
find suitable room in last year's plans. Sometimes the veteran 
might succeed without the special plan but he rarely assumes the 
risk. It is usually the novice, the very lazy person, or the exceed- 
ingly busy one that neglects to equip himself properly and relies 
on the inspiration of the moment. To prepare so well on the 
subject "that it will always be on tap," and then to rely on the 
spontaneity of the class room for the rest is not enough. This is 
well, but not all, for it is not strongly evident that the most 
scholarly person is always the most successful teacher. Think, 
devise, grow. 



THE LESSON PLAN. 35 

The great function of the teacher is to adjust subject matter 
so that the learning mind can make the proper associations in the 
most economical manner, and then to call forth the necessary 
reactions to weld these associations permanently into a new 
unity. Since the pupil is the intelligent, self-acting being for 
whom all schools exist, it is but sensible that he should be taken 
into the secret of the lesson and allowed to see the aim from his 
standpoint, not the standpoint of the teacher. This suggests a 
clear statement of an aim or an end to be reached that is within 
the grasp of the class and that the members may carry in mind 
while they study or are making investigations for themselves. 
Old ideas and experiences must be in consciousness so that the 
new may find proper associative materials with which to unite. 
The new must be properly arranged to adjust itself to the condi- 
tion of the mind of the learner most readily. The old and new 
require comparisons and abstractions to be made before they 
reach a final adjustment to each other. Generalizations are the 
next results to be attained. Lastly a full and repeated applica- 
tion or drill must be made that what has been presented may 
remain permanently and become a part of the mind's later work- 
ing material. There is a best way for all these activities to be con- 
ducted in all cases, and in order that one may approach that best 
way he must think out his line of operation beforehand. If this 
frightens the would-be teacher into the notion that thus she will 
become very formal and lose her originality, the reply may well 
be made that there are ten to one more failures in this world be- 
cause of inability to forecast and plan properly than there are 
geniuses crippled by too rigid insistence upon their working at 
first according to some fixed and definite plan. Planning is 
simply imagining the processes yet to be followed out and the 
results to be attained in the recitation. 



36 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

14 _ What the Teacher Must Know in Order to Plan Well. 

1. He should see clearly the end to be reached through the 
series of exercises for which he is planning and the aim of each 
individual recitation period in the attainment of that end. 

2. He should know the class as a unit as to the grade to 
which it belongs. Also he must understand the local environ- 
ment, and as much as possible of the home surroundings, attain- 
ments, and individuality of each member of the class. 

3. The general movement of the mind in learning and the 
special activities due to varying age and the laws of teaching 
applicable to each stage must be understood by the teacher. 

i. He should know thoroughly the subject he is to teach. 
This he must grasp as to fact and also he should have a realizing 
sense of what it is to do in the development of the mind and life 
of the child. 

5. He should have a knowledge of the use of devices in 

teaching in general and a sensible appreciation of the devices and 

apparatus necessary for the presentation of the particular lesson 

at hand. 

15.— The Thought Unit. 

The units made in most of the late text books are good, but 
the teacher must frequently adapt them to the conditions of the 
class. Chapter and topic headings should be recognized and then 
this matter should be marked off into portions that will make the 
class work effective and not destroy the continuity of the thought 
or introduce points not closely related into the same lesson. A 
complete unit generally covers more matter than can be pre- 
sented in one recitation period. In fact, there are not many reci- 
tation periods when the full operation of the steps in the necessary 
movement of the mind in learning can be realized. The teacher 
in dividing the subject for presentation and in making plans 



THE LESSON PLAN. 37 

should bear in mind the full teaching process and proceed each 
day accordingly until the unit is rounded out in the minds of the 
learners. The grade that is being taught and the time at com- 
mand for the particular class will have much to do in determining 
how much can be done in the development of the unit and the 
amount of work attempted will be governed by the condition ji 
class and school. Also it may be well for the teacher to recognize 
the fact that it often depends very much on the skill of the teacher 
as to how many periods must be given to the topic in the class 
room. The plan should be made for ''method wholes," or units of 
instruction, and the recitations should then be governed by the 
conditions confronting class and teacher. 

10.— The Plan=Book. 

1 . — General Directions. 
The subject, the class and the grade, and the teacher's name 
should appear on the cover of the book. On the early pages of 
the book a brief indication of the units to be treated during the 
term is made for each month of the time the teacher is to hold 
the class. Following this are to be the plans for the ''method 
wholes," or instruction units, as it is proposed to give them for 
the coming week. The recitation periods intended to be given 
to each unit will be indicated, showing what it is proposed to do 
in each period. The plan week is from Tuesday until Tuesday. 
This makes it possible to use Saturday for some of the work and 
leave the book with the following week's plans in the office of the 
supervisor on Monday morning. Books are returned to practic- 
ians on Tuesday, after having been read by critic teacher. At 
the top of the page beginning a unit the dates on which the 
lessons are to be given should appear and also the pages of the 
text covered are to be indicated. Special teaching devices, ob- 



38 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

jects and apparatus used in the class room will be mentioned in 
their proper places in that part of the recitation movement where 
they are to be used. 

2.— Paris of the Plan. 

a. The aim. This should be stated to a class using the text 
bock at the time of the assignment of the lesson, or when the unit 
of work is laid out. Sub-aims for each day are stated to call atten- 
tion to the particular work of the day in question. They should be 
the aim or end to be attained by the pupil and are not to show 
what the exercise is to be, considered from the standpoint of the 
teacher. The statement of the aim suggests to the pupil a result 
to be reached, a problem to be wrought out, or an end to be 
attained through both his study and the recitation period. This 
statement should be made in language that is simple, definite, 
concrete and attractive to the pupil without telling in full but 
suggesting the line that the thought is to take. Since this is to be 
helpful to members of the class in their study it should have a 
brief statement of the related points that have been acquired in 
their past lessons or from experiences that are familiar. This 
should be stated by pupils, generally. There should then be the 
forward view well stated. Sometimes one sentence may do and 
always the aim should be stated as briefly as the clearness and 
accuracy of the thought will permit. An aim is necessary for 
the best results and should not be overlooked, but it should always 
be remembered that the grade of the class and the new points 
to be taught or the particular kind of skill to be developed will 
determine the aim. At the close of the assignment pupils should 
be able to restate the aim. 

1). Introduction, or preparation of the pupils mind for the ad- 
vance lesson. This is shown on the plan under two heads standing 



THE LESSON PLAN. 89 

over parallel colums, one termed "matter," the other "method." 
(For the meaning of this arrangement see guide plans that follow 
this outline). In the "matter" column should appear all the ideas 
that are already in the learner's mind which the teacher thinks 
should be recalled vividly in order that the new may be compre- 
hended and proper associations made. In the column ol 
"method" should.be given the topics, questions, or other devices 
that the instructor would deem sensible to use in arousing these 
ideas anew. 

c. Discussion, or the presentation of the new points of the 
lesson. The first thing to receive attention by the teacher in 
trying to plan for specific class and exercise is the analysis of the 
coming lesson. What is to be taught in advance is to be deter- 
mined before anything else can intelligently be done. These 
points should stand out clearly in proper order and be thoroughly 
mastered by the teacher. As in the introduction the outline of 
the subject matter will be kept in column and the devices for 
teaching in parallel column. In this way the notes of the teacher 
will show what is to be taught and how it is proposed to proceed 
in the process. 

d. Elaboration, or working out the complete ideas through com- 
parison, abstraction, and generalization. Comparisons between the 
old and new ideas and among the new ones should be shown and 
the method or devices used in making these. Contrasts of unlike 
features and clear conclusions as to where the points differ 
from each other are a necessary part of the plan here. When 
these relations have been fully determined they should 
make it evident to the teacher what conclusions it is possible for 
the pupil to draw from the discussions that are thus aroused. 
These conclusions are sometimes generalizations but often they 
are summarized and united larger facts that appear from the 



40 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

union of things in new relations never before realized by the 
learner. There should be no straining after generalizations that 
are more imaginary than real. On the other hand, even the 
child's simple conclusions should not be overlooked when they 
grow naturally out of the collection and association of facts that 
are sensibly related. In all subjects where it is possible and when 
it is possible the general truth in the way of a principle, a defini- 
tion, or a rule should be determined and the pupils then led to see 
and state it for themselves. It is not assumed that general princi- 
ples, definitions, or rules will be reached in every lesson. The plan 
of the teacher here will require as great care as in any part of the 
teaching process. To lead adroitly and tell little in drawing- 
conclusions is a characteristic of the master teacher. 

e. Application and expression. In planning the preceding 
steps the teacher has been preparing to impress individual ideas 
and fix general principles. This is but one side of the teaching 
process. There must be a corresponding opportunity for the 
vigorous application of the new principles learned or for a 
thoughtful expression of the ideas gained. This is done by find- 
ing other individual cases that belong in the class that has been 
learned through the study. Finding individual truths that exem- 
plify the conclusions reached. Determining the class of separate 
things by measuring them with the definition that has been de- 
veloped. Solving problems by the rule just formulated. Drills. 
Arranging the old and new points in as many series as possible 
to make all the associations that can reasonably be found to 
hold the new matter sensibly in mind. Repeating the clearer 
ideas of the old as now seen in the light of the advanced work. 
Drawing and other handwork, such as relief forms, models, and 
the like should be used as a means of applying what has been 
presented. Making outlines of the leading topics and subordinate 



THE LESSON PLAN. 41 

points properly arranged is another form. In some branches, 
such as reading and language, committing is a part of this step 
that is appropriate very often. 

f. How to zvork, or the device side of the plan. When the 
"What", or the subject matter, has been fully determined and 
arranged in the proper order for the best operations of the learn- 
ing mind in all the foregoing divisions the teacher must turn to the 
"method", or device, side of the plan. If the former steps in the 
planning have been intelligently taken this is not a very difficult 
exercise. He knows just what he desires to do with the subject 
and with the pupil's mind. He selects the questions, the exer- 
cises, the illustrations, the topics, or the apparatus that will lead 
most readily to the ends provided for in each part of the treat- 
ment of the subject under discussion and the plan is complete. 

3. — Steps in Writing out the Plan. 

a. Careful analysis and a clear recognition of the essential 
points to be presented in the new lesson. 

b. Deciding what the pupils probably already know and 
can do. Selecting the points of contact in the previous knowl- 
edge and experience of the children as a means of preparation of 
the minds and of introducing the new lesson. 

c. Determination of the end to be attained as the aim of the 
pupil in his efforts to master the lesson or to perform the opera- 
tions expected of him in his study and in the coming recitation 
period. Up to this point the teacher has not been ready to make 
any permanent record in writing out the plan but now the aim, 
preparation and other divisions may be written in the proper 
order. 

d. Arrangement of the essential points of the advance les- 



42 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

son in the order for the best presentation as determined by the 
aim and preparation. 

e. Elaboration of the -thought of the lesson through the 
comparisons, contrasts, or other relations that the pupil may be 
led to discover and the generalizations or conclusions that he 
may be able to make. 

f. Clear determination of what is best to de done in the way 
of application, in opportunities for expression, and in drills. 

g. Lastly comes the selection of the devices that shall guide 
the activities of the pupil properly through all these divisions of 
the process of learning. 

Help in comprehending the purpose of the lesson plan and 
in recognizing the parts essential to its structure may be found 
in the following books, and especially on the pages or in the chap- 
ters named: The Method of the Recitation, McMurry, pp. 98- 
109, and Chapters II. and XL; School Management and School 
Methods, Baldwin, Chap. XVIII. ; Philosophy of Teaching, Tomp- 
kins, pp. 29-35; Putnam's Manual of Pedagogics, pp. 187-190; 
Principles and Practice of Teaching and Class Management, Lan- 
don, pp. 52-76, especially 70-76; New Manual of Method, Gar- 
lick, pp. 48-57 and 77, also there is help on special lessons 
throughout the entire discussions of the process of teaching the 
various branches; Essentials of Method, DeGarmo, almost the 
entire book, but especially, Part III., pp. 97-136; Art of Study, 
Hinsdale, pp. 93-96. 

1.7. — Illustrative Plans. 

The following plans have been worked out as suggestions, 
and in no sense as models to be copied. They are based on 
method units and should not be understood as necessarily in- 
tended for one recitation period. The length of recitation period, 



THE LESSON PLAN. 43 

the condition of class, and the skill of the teacher all combine 
to determine how much can be done in one period. The plans 
should be made for the entire unit and indications given as to 
how much of this the teacher thinks he can do each period. Often 
smaller units that can be covered in one period can be traced 
through the same steps that the larger units must have, and when 
this is possible it should be done in that way. When a compre- 
hensive aim has been stated for a method unit requiring a number 
of days for full treatment there should be sub-aims given to the 
pupils so that they may see clearly each day what is to be accom- 
plished. In these illustrative plans the sub-aims are not indicated 
because recitation periods vary so much in length in different 
schools that more misunderstanding is probable from attempted 
divisions in these than there will be to let each stand as a unit. 
It is not suggested by this, however, that each of these plans or 
in fact any one of them should be completed in one period in all 
conditions of schools. 

In the "matter" column there is not much opportunity for 
originality on the part of the teacher. The subject itself, the 
condition of the class, and the nature of the mind determine in 
the main what he must do. On the side of "method" the teacher 
has abundant opportunity to work out original questions, illus- 
trations, and other devices that will lead the pupil's mind sensibly 
along the way the subject and mind combined require that it 
should go. Method proper, based as it is on the mind and the 
matter, is almost a constant thing; devices may vary, and should 
do so for different classes and localities. It is hoped these plans 
may aid not only in making plans, but in the higher function 
of execution in the exercises of the recitation hour. They should 
be regarded as illustrations of principles and not as devices to be 
copied. 



44 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

All thoughtful teachers realize that the mind follows a cer- 
tain order in learning. Yet, to indicate in outline the steps in 
such a process as that of teaching results in more or less rigidity 
of relation of topics. These orderly steps glide imperceptibly 
into each other, but in preparation and in giving a lesson the 
teacher must recognize each in its proper place and make it as 
complete as possible before leading the pupil into the advance 
movement. It should be remembered that there are times when the 
work in a particular step may be done very quickly, a few short, 
sharp questions being sufficient. There may be instances when 
the minds of the pupils seem to leap to conclusions without going 
through the processes for which the teacher had planned. On 
such occasions that part of the plan should be abandoned and the 
next division be taken up at once. It is just as probable, how- 
ever, that the contrary conditions may sometimes prevail. Some 
steps in some lessons, or with certain classes or subjects may take 
whole recitation periods on that one division. The teacher's good 
sense must be the guide here and certain steps be canvassed 
quickly or surveyed in a leisurely manner as. the occasion may 
require. These conditions will be met all the more readily, how- 
ever, by the person who plans carefully. At first one learns to 
do a thing through consciousness of what he is doing. In the be- 
ginning the teacher is conscious of the steps — the pupil need not 
be so — and gradually the former acquires power to do the right 
thing unconsciously, which is the thing desired to be reached 
by this planning, 

1 — READING LESSON. 

THE SANDPIPER.— A POEM BY CELIA THAXTER. 

Aim: — In a former lesson we learned of an island lighthouse 
along the Atlantic coast and the life of a little girl there, hi this 
poem we shall be allowed to see one of her feathered playmates of 



THE LESSON PLAN. 



45 



those days and to learn i?i what particular thing 
and the bird were alike. 



she decided she 



MATTER. 

A.— Preparation. 

White and Appledore Islands. 

1. Location. 2. The little girl 
and her family. 3. How they 
came to be there. 4. How the 
children spent their time. 5. The 
sandpiper. 

(a). Size. (b). How it lives, (c). 
Common birds somewhat like it. 



B. — Presentation. 

I. Characters in the poem. 
Little girl. Sandpiper. The 
Providence that cares for all. 



METHOD. 

A.— Preparation. 

1. Locate these islands on the 
map and by pointing toward them. 
2. Who was this little girl and how 
many children in the family? 3. 
What was her father's business on 
the islands? 4. Tell how the chil- 
dren amused themselves. 5. (a). 
Show the class how large you 
think the sandpiper to be. (b). 
Where does it live and what is its 
food likely to be? (c). Name 
some common birds that you think 
are like it. 

B. — Presentation. 

I. Name the living beings men- 
tioned in the poem — seen and un- 
seen. 

{Pupils should here be required to state 
what they have determined in their study is 
the general purpose of the entire poem. They 
should also state what the purpose of each 
stanza is as it is taken up. —See discussion of 
teaching reading in a later chapter .—Muck 
sentence reading and reading to show certain 
pictures should be done as the poem is worked 
over this time. 



STANZAS. 

I. On the beach. 

1. Little girl and Sandpiper. 

2. Occupation. 

3. Wind and waves. 



II. The weather. 

1. Clouds. 

2. Lighthouses. 

3. Vessels. 



III. The Sandpiper. 

1. His cry. 

2. His courage. 



STANZAS. 

I. Where are they? 

1. Who and what is mentioned? 

2. What are they doing? 

3. What kind of winds and 
waves? 

II. What is the condition of the 
weather? 

1. What kind of clouds? 

2. How do the lighthouses 
seem? 

3. What are the vessels doing? 

III. What is the most important 
thing the author talks about in this 
stanza? 

1. What does the little girl no- 
tice of his acts? 2. What shows 



46 



THE Til AC HER AT WORK. 



3. Cause of his confidence. 

IV. The night storm. 

1. Question. 

2. The little girl's condition. 

C— Elaboration. (Comparison, 
abstraction, generalization.) 

1. Picture made in the first 
stanza. 

2. Feeling aroused in the reader. 

3. New parts for mental pic- 
ture from second stanza. 

4. Things mentioned. 

5. Feeling of one there alone. 



6. The calmness and confidence 
of the sandpiner. (Third stanza.) 
(Stanza four.) 



7. Shelter for the bird. 

8. Drift-wood fire and protec- 
tion for the little girl. 

9. Change in feeling. 



10. Feeling one's loneliness and 
helplessness leads him to rejoice in 
the assurance of protection. 



11. Lonely beach, wild waves, 
wild winds, tide runs high, sullen 
clouds, scud black and swift, silent 
ghosts, misty shrouds, close-reefed 
vessels fly, mournful cry, fitful 
song, storm breaks furiously, 
wroth the tempest rushes. 

12. He starts not, has no 
thought of any wrong, fearlessly, 
stanch friends, comrade, my drift- 
wood fire will burn bright, "I do 
not fear for the * * * * * 
For are we not God's children 



his courage? 3. Why is he so 
courageous? 

IV. What is coming? 

1. What question does the lit- 
tle girl ask? 2. What does she 
say as to her own condition? 

C. — Elaboration. (Comparison, 
abstraction, generalization.) 

I. What things appear in the 
picture made by the first stanza? 
2. What feelings does this picture 
arouse in you? 3. In what parts 
of the picture do the new things 
mentioned come? 4. What things 
are added? 5. How would one feel 
if out there alone and surrounded 
as these two stanzas show? 

6. In the third stanza what 
things is the sandpiper said to do? 
How do you explain his fearless- 
ness with the weather so threaten- 
ing? How would the little girl feel 
without his presence? 

7. What does the writer make 
us feel will happen to the bird? 

8. How did the little girl feel as 
to her own safety? 

9. How do her feelings seem 
now as compared with the feeling 
at the close of the second stanza? 

10. Why does the author create 
this lonely and helpless feeling in 
one and then arouse the more 
hopeful one of confidence in a pro- 
tector? 

II. Make a list of expressions 
found in the poem that have a ten- 
dency to create the feeling of lone- 
liness and fear. 



12. Another throughout the 
poem showing the brighter side of 
fearlessness and rejoicing in hope 
of protection. 

In which part of poem are most 
of each found? 

both, Thou, little sandpiper, and 
I?" 



THE LESSON PLAN. 



47 



13. There is a power that cares 
for all, 

D. — Application. 

"Not a sparrow falleth * * *" 
"God tempers the wind * * * *." 
"Take no thought what ye * * *." 

Reading of entire poem, by 
parts, by topics, by stanzas in 
order. Outline as given in other 
parts of plan. Build series of 
ideas: — we flit, I gather, waves 
reach, winds rave, tide runs, &c. 
Bryant's poem, "To a Waterfowl." 
Pictures that deepen the impres- 
sion. 



13. What statement can you 
make that applies this thought of 
protection to all of us at all times? 

D. — Application. 

Give quotations from scripture 
and other sources that will show 
the same thought as conclusion 
reached in poem. (Poem was read 
under presentation to develop 
ideas there outlined, but it should 
now be re-read thoughtfully in 
class.) Make series of ideas using 
subjects and verbs. Make outlines 
of entire thought. Read parts at 
least of, "To a Waterfowl." Show 
pictures that will clear up ideas. 
Commit last stanza. 



2.— GEOGRAPHY LESSON. 
THE GREAT BASIN. 



(Complete Geography — Frye, Page 33.) 

Aim: — We have found that heat, wind and rainfall o.re the 
important elements in making a productive country, and how the 
region west of the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains is fav- 
ored by these. In the study of the Great Basin zve shall find what 
productive conditions it has and why they are so. 



MATTEE. 

A. — Preparation. 

I. Climatic belts. 

1. Heat. 

2. Wind and rainfall. 

3. Change in location of each. 



II. Sierra Nevada Mountains. 

1. Location. 

2. Heat, winds and rainfall on 
the western side of these. 



METHOD. 

A. — Preparation. 

I. Name the chief elements in 
making climate. 1, 2, 3, From 
map locate heat, wind and rain 
belts in western United States and 
show the changes in location for 
the year. 

II. 1. Locate the Sierra Nevada 
Mountains on the map and by 
pointing toward them. 2. State 
conditions of heat, winds and rain- 
fall on their western slope with 
reasons for the conditions found. 



48 



THE TEACHER AT WORK. 



B. — Presentation. 

The Great Basin. 
1. Location. 



2. Surface. 

(a). Elevation. 

(b). Ridges and valleys. 

(c). Depressions. 



3. Rainfall. 

(a). Amount. 

(b). Number and size of riv- 
ers and lakes and condition of 
water in them. 



Soil. 



Products, 
(a). Vegetation or plant life. 

(Irrigation.) 
(b). Mineral. 



6. Population. 

(a). Density in general, 
(b). Cities. 



B. — Presentation. 

1. Locate the Great Basin: — On 
the continent, in heat belts, in 
wind belts, and by mountain 
boundaries. Point it out on the 
relief map of North America. Point 
in the direction it is from us. 

2. (a). What is its elevation? 
(b). Where are the ridges and val- 
leys? (c). Where noted depres- 
sions? (Blackboard sketch by 
teacher to be followed on paper by 
pupils.) 

3. (a). Tell what you can of 
the peculiarities of the rainfall. 

(b). What can you say of the 
number, size and condition of the 
water of the rivers and lakes? 
How do you account for this con- 
dition of the water? What espe- 
cially noted lake in this basin? 
(Display pictures in text and such 
others of the region as can be ob- 
tained.) 

4. What is the nature of the 
soil and what is the chief reason 
for its unproductiveness? 

5. (a). What is the general con- 
dition of this region as to plant 
life? What special effort made in 
places to get plant products? 
(Show pictures of irrigation 
ditches. A brief discussion of this 
topic by a pupil who has made 
special preparation for it.) 

(b). What mineral products are 
secured and where are they pro- 
cured? (Display specimens if pos- 
sible to obtain them.) 

6. (a). What is the general con- 
dition as to density of population? 
(b). What is the chief industry on 
which the life of the cities and vil- 
lages is based? Name the city of 
note found in this basin and ex- 
plain why it is here. (Pictures 
again.) 



THE LESSON PLAN. 



49 



C. — Elaboration. (Comparison, 
abstraction, generalization.) 

1. Conditions west of the Sier- 
ras. 

Winds — moist most of year. 
Heat — modified by ocean. Moun- 
tains on the east — condense, store, 
and send back moisture in streams. 
Rivers — constant, fresh water, flow 
into lakes or other bodies of water. 
Lakes — constant in size, fresh 
water. Soil — fertile in valleys, much 
land that produces without irriga- 
tion. Some regions irrigated. Veg- 
etation — generally abundant. Prod- 
ucts — vegetable and mineral, but 
plant life quite luxuriant. Popula- 
tion — comparatively dense. Cities 
— many cities of prominence. 

II. In the Great Basin. 

Winds — dry. Heat — intense be- 
cause of radiation from dry land. 
Mountains on the west — cut off 
most of the winds and rob such as 
pass over from the west of the 
greater part of their moisture. 
Rainfall — very light. Rivers — vary 
much in size at different seasons, 
lose themselves in the sand gener- 
ally. Lakes — vary in size in differ- 
ent seasons, water salt. Soil — ster- 
ile from lack of moisture. Practi- 
cally all needs irrigation. Vegeta- 
tion — very sparse. Products — 
chiefly mineral, excepting where 
irrigation is in operation. Popula- 
tion — sparse, mostly in villages in 
mining regions. Cities — just one 
prominent city. 

III. Conclusions or Generaliza- 
tions. 

/. The region west of the Sierra 
Nevada mountains is much better 
adapted to the support of a large pop- 
ulation than the Great Basin region. 

2. The Great Basin region gives 
little promise of ever being able to 
support a large civilized population. 



C. — Elaboration. _ (Comparison, 
abstraction, generalization.) 

I. Conditions west of the Sier- 
ras. 

Make a statement of these under 
the following heads and set in 
comparison or contrast with them 
the same conditions in the Great 
Basin: Winds, heat, mountains, 
rainfall, rivers, lakes, soil, vegeta- 
tion products, population, cities. 



II. Conditions in the Great Basin. 



III. Conclusions or Generaliza- 
tions. 

1. What can you say of the 
country west of the Sierras as a 
home for civilized communities? 

2. State conclusion you would 
make as to the desirability of the 
Great Basin as a home for man 



50 



THE TEACHER AT WORK. 



What people live there must get their 
products from mines and through 
farming by irrigation. The great 
want of the basin is moisture. 

j. When either heat or moisture 
is deficient in a particular region it 
is not well adapted to the needs of 
civilized man. 

D. — Application. 

Map of region. Relief moulded 
in sand or paper pulp. Other 
regions with almost similar con- 
ditions. 

1. East of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. 

2. Sahara desert, &c. 
Topical outline of points as made 

under "presentation." 

"The Great Basin lies in the 
western part of North America, in 
the path of the westerlies, in great 
part, and is surrounded by the Col- 
umbia Plateau, Wasatch and Sier- 
ra Nevada mountains. Surface ele- 
vated and rough with many north 
and south ranges of unweathered 
ridges. Death valley is a noted de- 
pression. Moisture bearing winds 
from the west are shut out by the 
mountains, making light rainfall. 
Summers hot. Water in rivers 
and lakes salty. Soil is not pro- 
ductive, excepting by irrigation*, 
and few plants grow there. Some 
mineral products in the hills. Pop- 
ulation very light. Salt Lake City 
near Great Salt Lake is the great- 
est and most widely known city in 
the basin. The western slope of 
the Sierras is much more produc- 
tive than this region. 

Stories. 



and how those who do live there 
must get their support. 

3. Deprive a region of either 
heat or moisture and what is true 
as to its favorableness for the life 
of civilized people? 

D. — Application. 

Draw map from memory, on pa- 
per, on the board. Build your 
ideas of the relief of the region 
with paper pulp. Name other sec- 
tions with somewhat similar con- 
ditions, in our own country, in 
other countries. Make a topical 
outline of the points we discussed 
about the Great Basin during this 
recitation. Write in brief, con- 
nected statements the facts we 
have learned about this section of 
country. Teacher or pupils tell 
stories of difficulties of travelers 
and early settlers in the basin. 



THE LESSON PLAN. 



51 



3.— UNITED STATES HISTORY. 

PLYMOUTH COLONY. 

(Montgomery's Leading Facts of American History.) 

Aim: — So far in our study we have found the English at- 
tempts at settlement in America to have been in the south, and that 
the leading cause was a desire to get gold or other forms of wealth 
with which to return to live in England. Also we have seen that 
industrial conditions at home encouraged this viovement to Amer- 
ica. In the study of this colony we shall find still other co?iditions 
at home and other motives of the colonists in comi?ig to this country, 
and shall try to see what resulted from their efforts. 

MATTER. METHOD. 

A. — Preparation. 

I. Who was Raleigh and what 
motives led him to try to send out 
settlers? 

1. Where were the attempts at 
settlement made? (Show on map 
and point toward the region.) 

2. When was this? What was 
occurring in Europe that hindered 
these efforts? 

3. What class of people came? 
How many different companies? 
4. What was their motive in com- 



A. — Preparation. 

I. Raleigh's attempts. 

1. Where. Roanoke Is., N. C. 

2. When. 1584-7. 



3. Who came. Wealth seekers. 

4. Why. Desire for wealth. 

5. What resulted from their 
efforts. 



ingi 



Name all the results, 



II. Settlement of Virginia. 

1. 
R. 

2 

3. 
fore 

4. 



Where. Jamestown, James 

When. 1607. 

Who came. Mostly as be- 



Why. Commercial enter- 
prise. 

5. Results of their settlement. 

(a). Permanent settlement. 

(b). Resort for members of 
church of England and Cavaliers. 

(c). Establishment of tobacco 
industry. 

(d). First attempts at repre- 
sentative government in America 



good or evil, that came from these 
efforts. 

II. Settlement of Virginia. 

1. Show where this settlement 
was made. Map. Point. 2. When? 
3. What classes came? 4. What 
was the leading motive in their 
coming? 5. Name all the results 
of importance that you can. 



52 



THE TEACHER AT WORK. 



(e). Introduction of slavery. 

(f). Growth of ideas of self- 
government from Bacon's rebel- 
lion. 

B. — Presentation. 

Plymouth Colonv. 

I. Conditions in England. 

1. Legal requirements concern- 
ing the Church of England. 

2. Classes objecting to this law. 
(a). Catholics. (b). Puritans, 
(c). Separatists. 

3. Emigration. 

II. Separatists or Pilgrims. 
1. While yet in Europe. 
(a). In Holland. 

(b). Concluding to come to 
America and reasons for it. 

(1). Loss of nationality of their 
children if they stayed. 

(2). Aversion toward the lan- 
guage and customs in Holland. 

(3). Desire to found colony on 
English soil where their views of 
government and religion might 
prevail. 

(c). Determine upon Hudson 
river region. 

(d). Poverty. 

(e). Assistance. 
(1). From English merchants. 
(2). Terms very exacting. 

2. Sailing and settling. 

(a). Where. From Plymouth. 
England to Plymouth Rock, (Cape 
Cod Bay), Mass. 

(b). When— Autumn of year 
1620. 

(c). Who came — About ninety 
Pilgrims with a few servants and 
a few others that joined their 
colony. 

(d). Why— (Find this under 
concluding to come to America 
and reasons for it.) 

3. Events and results. 

(a). The Mayflower compact, 
(b). First houses, first gov- 
ernor, and first winter. 



B.— Presentation. 

Plymouth Colony. 

I. 1. What law in regard to the 
established church was in force in 
England? 2. What classes ob- 
jected? 3. To what did this law 
and the objections lead? Where 
did they go? 

II. State the views and experi- 
ences that make these terms appli- 
cable to these people. 

1. (a). When in Europe where 
did they make their home? (b). 
What did they finally decide to do 
and what were their reasons? 

(c). Where did they expect to 
go? Why not go to Virginia Col- 
ony? 

(d). What stood in the way of 
their going? (e). Who gave them 
the necessary help and on what 
terms? 



2. Name ship that came and tell 
of experiences in getting started. 

(a). Show on map the place of 
starting and of landing. (Teacher 
sketch map on board and pupils 
draw on paper, showing region of 
landing.) 

(b). Give year and season of 
their coming, (c). Give your idea 
of the classes and character of 
people that came. (d). State 
again their reasons for coming. 

3. (a). What are the terms of 
the Mayflower compact and why 
was it made? 

(b). Discuss topically: first 
houses, first governor, first winter. 



THE LESSON PLAN. 



53 



(c). 

(l). 
(2). 
(3). 
(4). 
troubles. 
(5). 



Men and measures. 
New governor. 
Military leader. 
The town-meeting. 
Indian treaties 



and 



free- 



Purchasing their 
dom from the English merchants. 
(6). Slow growth. 
(7). Spirit made them great. 



C. — Elaboration. (Comparison, 
abstraction, generalization.) 

I. Raleigh's attempts. 

Place — Island south Atlantic 
coast. Climate — Moderate. Leader 
in the movement — Raleigh. Con- 
ditions in England — Industrial 
stagnation. Character of colonists 
— Not strong, mostly adventurers. 
Motives — Gold seeking and to re- 
turn to England. Results — Failure 
excepting as it paved the way for 
more successful efforts later. 

II. Virginia Colony. 

1. Inland on James river — 
south. 2. Moderate. 3. London 
Company. 4. Industrial stagna- 
tion and idle discharged soldiers. 
5. Most of them dissolute and un- 
willing to work. 6. For adventure 
and seeking gold with which to re- 
turn to England. 7. Established 
plantation life. For other results 
see same topic for this colony in 
"preparation." 

III. Plymouth Colony. 

1. In the north, on the coast 
but on mainland. 2. Rigorous 
and severe climate. 3. The col- 
onists themselves with means se- 
cured by practically selling their 
efforts for seven years. 4. Relig- 



(c). (1). Tell all you can of the 
new governor. (2). Who is the 
military leader and what are his 
qualifications for the place? (3). 
Look up and discuss very fully, 
"the town-meeting." (4). What 
treaties were made with the Indi- 
ans and the results of these? 
(5). How did the colonists get free 
from the English merchants? (6). 
What was the growth of the col- 
ony and how do you account for 
it? (7). Give the things that in 
your estimation make the Pilgrims 
great. 

C. — Elaboration. (Comparison, 

abstraction, generalization.) 

I. Raleigh's attempts. 

Put the colonies studied in the 
preparation and the presentation 
into comparison or contrast under 
the following heads: 1. Place. 
2. Climate. 3. Leaders in the col- 
onizing movement. 4. Conditions 
in England. 5. Character of col- 
onists. 6. Motives leading them to 
come. 7. Most important results. 

II. Virginia Colony. 



III. Plymouth Colony. 



54 



THE TEACHER AT WORK. 



ious disturbances and dissatisfied 
sects. 5. Stern, sturdy, upright, 
God-fearing, energetic, patient- 
toiling. 6. To make permanent 
homes and remain. Also see rea- 
sons given in the presentation. 7„ 
Started excellent ideas in govern- 
ment in the Mayflower compact 
and the town-meeting system they 
used. Opened the way for others 
who followed rapidly a few years 
later. Gave to the world examples 
of strong, earnest manhood. Spirit 
manifested in overcoming their 
difficulties gave inspiration to all 
times since. 

IV. Prominent characters in 
the colonies. White, Smith, Dale, 
Delaware, Berkeley, Bacon, Car- 
ver, Bradford, Standish. 

V. Conclusions. 

/ . Raleigh's efforts are commeii ar- 
able in the impulse that they gave 
to the colonization idea. 

2. The Virginia effort resulted 
in permanency of the colonization 
theory, in overcoming the tendency 
to desert the colony and thus made 
the first permanent settlement. 

j. The Plymouth colony goes a 
step in advance in shoiuing deter- 
mination beforehand to overcome ad- 
verse circumstances and make homes. 
The struggle with the rigorous cli- 
mate of the North and the results rf 
their efforts leave lasting inspira- 
tion for all time. 

4. General— 'There is no excel- 
lence without great labor.'" 

D.— Application. 

Maps. Groups of items. — Illus- 
tration. Time: 1584-7, 1607, 1620. 
Important names: White, Smith, 
Berkeley, Bacon, Carver, Brad- 
ford, Standish. Religious convic- 
tions. Church of England. Separ- 
atists. Motives: Gold, wealth and 
return to England to live, life for a 
principle and homes in America. 



IV. Name, compare, contrast, 
and tell what you admire most in 
the prominent men in these colo- 
nies. 

V. Conclusions. 

1. What conclusion do you 
draw as to the benefits of Raleigh's 
efforts*? 

2. Show how the Virginia Col- 
ony resulted in superior value to 
that of the Raleigh attempts. 

3. What did the Plymouth Col- 
ony accomplish that neither of the 
others had done? 

4. Give a quotation that is gen- 
eral that may be said to be exem- 
plified by the efforts of these vari- 
ous colonists. 



D. — Application. 

Make maps of the several locali- 
ties studied. Make groups of items 
associating ideas in different ways 
and letting each group suggest all 
the others it can. Have full topical 
outline made and recitations from 
it. Read and have read as much 
as time will allow: The Landing of 
the Pilgrims, The Pilgrim Fathers, 



THE LESSON PLAN. 



55 



Systems of gov't . Of industry. 

Literature. Apt thoughts — 

"Where there is a will there is a 
way." "God helps those who help 
themselves." Others may be given. 



&c. Apt thoughts illustrated by 
the colonists. 

Summary by connected state- 
ment — See geography plan for 
illustration. 



4.— ARITHMETIC LESSON. 

ONE OF THE METRIC TABLES. 

(Lesson given orally, but to a class that has some knowledge 
of the common tables in denominate numbers, especially measure 
of length for short distances.) 

Aim: — All of us know how many mills in a cent,, cents in a 
dime, units in a ten, tens in a hundred, etc., and how easy it is to 
learn and ?rviember such tables. In our previous lesson we noticed 
how irregular our common ?neasures for measuring width a7id 
length of books, desks, rooms, thickness of tablets, books, length of 
blackboard, of carpets, etc., are, and also we learned the le?zgth and 
name of a new measure, but found it too long to vieasure small 
things. To-day we shall see what smaller measures make up this 
large one, and how many of each of the smaller measures are re- 
quired to make o?ie of the next higher, 

METHOD. 

A. — Preparation. 

1. Give the table of common 
measures, inches, feet, &c, used in 
measuring_ length, width, or thick- 
ness of things. 2. Who can give 
the table of United States money? 
3. Build up a similar table in our 
common numbers beginning with 
units. Which of these tables do 
you think easiest to learn and to 
use? 4. Give the name of the 
new measure we had in the last 
lesson. Make a line on the board 
as long as that measure. Hold 
your hands just as far apart as 
the length of that measure. Close 
your eyes and think a distance as 
long as the meter. Find the meter 
stick from this bunch by looking 
at its length. 



MATTER. 

A. — Preparation. 

1. Common table for short 
measurements. 

8-8 in. make 1 inch. 
12 inches make 1 foot. 
3 feet make 1 yard. 

2. United States Money. 
10 mills make 1 cent. 

10 cents make 1 dime. 
10 dimes make 1 dollar. 

3. Common Numbers. 
10 units make 1 ten. 

10 tens make 1 hundred. 

10 hundreds make 1 thousand. 

4. The meter reviewed. 



56 



THE TEACHER AT WORK. 



B. — Presentation. 

See last statement in the aim. 
I. The meter. 

1. Divide the meter into tenths. 

2. The decimeter. 



II. Metric table. 

1. Worked down by tenths go 
back by tens. 

10 millimeters make 1 centi- 
meter. 

10 centimeters make 1 decimeter. 

10 decimeters make 1 meter. 



B. — Presentation. 

What is it that we said we are to 
find out to-day? 

I. Since this stick is too long to 
measure small things how may we 
get measures for them? 

1. In thinking of the tables that 
we have just had and the ones 
that you thought were easiest to 
remember and use, what would you 
•suggest as a good way to make 
smaller measures from this one? 

2. Who knows the name of this 
tenth part of the meter? (If .no 
one knows, which is quite prob- 
able, the teacher will give it pro- 
nouncing it carefully and writing 
it on the board.) You may pro- 
nounce the name of this new meas- 
ure. All may take pencil and 
write it being very careful to spell 
it exactly right. Take these deci- 
meter rulers and measure pencils, 
books, &c, with them. (Rulers 
made from tops of crayon boxes.) 
Hold thumb and middle finger a 
decimeter apart. Hold hands a 
decimeter apart. Draw lines a dec- 
imeter long. Close your eyes and 
think the length of the decimeter. 
Measure the thickness of your tab- 
lets, books, of the side of a crayon 
box and the like. (They discover 
that this measure is too large for 
this use.) Proceed with the centi- 
meter and millimeter as was done 
with the decimeter. 

II. Build the metric table. 

1. Since each smaller measure 
is one-tenth of the larger how 
many of the smaller in each case 
shall we take to make one of the 
larger? 

■ Who is ready to start the table 
of new measures we have learned, 
beginning with the millimeter? (It 
is given orally by different mem- 
bers of the class contributing parts 
and the teacher may write it on 
the board, spelling out each word 



THE LESSON PLAN. 



57 



C. — Elaboration. (Comparison, 
abstraction, generalization.) 

1. Tables given in the prepara- 
tory step recalled. The new one 
kept in mind. 



2. Generalizations. 

(a.) We find that we can measure 
length with measures that increase 
and decrease by tens just as our com- 
mon numbers i?icrease and decrease 
or as money is measured. 

(b.) Since our common numbers 
increase and decrease by tens or are 
measured by tens it would be easier 
if we could have all our tables go by 
tens as we have found it is done in 
money measure and have now seen 
in measures of length. 



in full.) You may look at the table 
on the board and think the length 
of each measure and notice care- 
fully just how each word is spelled. 
(Teacher erases from board.) You 
may now write the table, but be 
sure that you do not try to write 
a word that you can not spell cor- 
rectly. (Any word that a pupil 
says he can not spell should be 
put on the board for him to copy. 
Care here will save much trouble 
later. 

C. — Elaboration. (Comparison, 
abstraction, generalization.) 

1. Which table of those we had 
at the beginning of this lesson is 
like the new one in purpose? How 
do they differ? How are the other 
tables and the new one alike? In 
what are they different from the 
new one? In what are they differ- 
ent from the first one? In what 
are they like each other? How do 
they differ? 

2. Generalizations. 

(a). What have we found that 
we can do with the new measures? 

(b). Since the common num- 
bers are measured by tens, money 
by tens, and we have found now 
that length may be so measured, 
what might be thought would be 
the thing to do in measuring other 
things? 



D. — Application. 

Measurements. 

Draw units to build up table. 
Problems — 

How many: 

Decimeters in 3, 8, 21, 5, 32, 
6, 9 meters? 

Centimeters in 1, 3, 25, 18, 
16, 24 15, 13, 2, 4, 9 decimeters? 



D. — Application. 

Measure the top of your desk, 
the top of table, its height, width 
of aisle, height of members of 
class, length of arms, &c, with 
the meter or use other measure 
when the meter is too large. 

Draw ten millimeters in column 
on your paper and at the right put 



58 



THE TEACHER AT WORK. 



Millimeters in 8, 3, 5, 2, 12, 17, 
21, 16, 31, 18 centimeters? 

Centimeters in 20, 80, 40, 60, 
30 70 120, 220, 330 millimeters? 

' Decimeters in 100, 50, 30, 130, 
40, 90 centimeters? 

Meters in 40, 70, 150, 80, 160, 
120, 50, 90 decimeters? 

Metric table. 



the equality sign and then draw a 
line to show what the ten milli- 
meters equal. Make the entire 
table in that way using the black- 
board when you need it for the 
long lines. 

Solve these problems reading the 
results at sight and trying to think 
the length of each unit named as 
you give it. 

(At first it is well to make the 
drills on very simple combinations. 
Later problems may have frac- 
tional results.) 

Give table just learned. 



ASSIGNMENT OF LESSONS. 59 

III. 

ASSIGNHENT OF LESSONS. 

IS. — Importance. 

If it is important that the teacher should have a plan in 
mind while he teaches, it is equally necessary that the pupil 
should have the way that he is to follow in his study hour clearly 
marked out for him. The assignment of the lesson is the process 
by which the maturer mind of the teacher lays the guide lines 
that the child is to observe in his effort at mastering the task 
set before him. No marks to guide or uncertain and indefinite 
ones are fruitful causes of wasted study time, and this leads to 
the acquiring of pernicious mental habits and a line of conduct 
that is very detrimental to the best interests of the school. Good 
assignments go a long way toward insuring good study periods, 
and the latter of course, insure a wide awake recitation, which is 
simply another way of saying that the school is a success. A 
teacher who assigns work well generally teaches well, and this 
insures little trouble in discipline. 

ID. — The Teacher's Preparation. 

He must make a careful determination of the facts and ex- 
periences of the past that should be clearly in the conscious- 
ness of the pupil while he studies. No study is successful that 
concerns itself entirely with the new points that are under con- 
sideration. Before assigning the lesson the teacher must de- 
cide what matter the pupil should recall and have in mind while 
he studies. It is no small matter to be able to suggest wisely 
the back work that should be in view at the time of the prepar- 
ation of the advance. Often the gathering up of the points made 



60 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

in the recitation about to close is an excellent preparatory step 
to the assignment, or a sharp, rapid review of lessons farther 
back may supply the needed material. In some lessons the 
needed related ideas are found in the home and in other experi- 
ences of the pupil entirely outside the school. Another element 
in the teacher's preparation for good assignment of work is a 
clear view of the essential points found in the advance topics. 
To recognize accurately just what there is new in the matter 
under consideration for the study period requires close inves- 
tigation on the part of the teacher. In order that the child may 
study to advantage the new must be suggested to him as some- 
thing that he is to discover in his investigation while at his study. 
Poor studying is done because hasty and indefinite assignments 
are made by teachers who have not looked up the points that 
should have been vividly held before an interested class. 

iiO.— Attitude of the Class. 

If inattention is ever allowable it certainly is not to be 
countenanced at the time that work for the next day is being 
marked out. Texts and tablets should be in hand so that every 
suggestion may be secured for the advantage of the study hour. 
After the portion has been put before the class so that it may 
readily be reproduced as to the points that are for study, one 
or more members of the class should be required to restate the 
matter to be covered, and to suggest just what the class and he 
should intend to work out. Contrary to the current idea that 
this careful mapping out of the line of travel for the pupil in 
his study will kill his interest in the lesson, the opposite is found 
to be the result when he sees clearly that there is something in 
every lesson for him. 

Pupils should feel that every idea that is suggested as neces- 



ASSIGNMENT OF LESSONS. 61 

sary review must be in mind while the lesson is under contem- 
plation in the assignment as well as while they are studying. 
They should give attention to the suggestions as to the materials 
that are to be used in the preparation of the topics, and likewise 
to the things that may be named as necessary to bring to the 
recitation when it is called the next day. Pupils should be re- 
quired to keep neat and accurate note-books of assignments and 
then they should follow these carefully in the study of the lesson. 
References that are to be looked up should be clearly mentioned 
by the teacher and very closely noted by the pupil. Ignored refer- 
ences are worse than no references for any class. Generally, 
book and page of the reference should be given to the inexpe- 
rienced student. 

21.— Ways of Making, When, Time Taken. 

Probably most of the time the pages of the text may be 
taken consecutively. This depends upon the subject and the 
arrangement of the book. Often the work may be laid out by 
the topics found in the text, but not on pages that follow 7 in order. 
Selections from the index sometimes make the best arrangement 
of the lesson points. Frequently with older pupils the text may 
be laid aside and work given from other texts and reference books 
by topics entirely. Difficulties should be marked out to be at- 
tacked singly. Closely related topics should be kept as nearly 
as possible in the same lesson. Ends of lessons and end of topics 
should be made to coincide instead of carrying a small fraction of 
a discussion over into a new topic simply because the pages of the 
book seem to make the lesson long. Looking ahead properly 
will help the teacher to avoid such a difficulty. In general, the 
close of the recitation period is the best time for the assignment 
for such pupils as are found in the public schools. The result of 



62 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

the recitation may not always be such that an assignment made 
at the opening of the period will be the one best adapted to the 
class for next day's study. As to the amount of time that should 
be surrendered to this exercise there can be no absolute rule 
given. It is reasonable to suggest that in the ordinary school 
far too often the time given is much under what it should be. In 
a recitation period of thirty minutes, five minutes would not seem 
an over amount of time to give to a matter so important as 
the assignment. Sometimes more than that may wisely be given. 
When an assignment of definite work has been made it should 
be closely followed out in the recitation period. 

~~. — Study Period, Teacher's Manner. 

It would probably result in much better work if pupils could 
have the study program so arranged that they could study the 
following lesson just after the close of the assignment. This 
might be possible for those needing such an advantage most — 
which would seem to be in the middle grades of the public 
schools. Careful preparation on the part of the teacher is neces- 
sary in order that the proper amount of enthusiasm and earn- 
estness may be put into this part of the work through a revived 
and quickened interest due to a fresh study of the subject. In 
closing, a quotation is given because the thought has value in 
more dirctions than that alone of the special topic under discus- 
sion. "The principal spoke in a conversational tone, but with 
great animation; and both he and his pupils were aglow with 
earnestness. In twenty-five minutes the lesson closed, and some 
five minutes were devoted to the careful assignment of the next 
lesson which the pupils noted with evident care." — White. 



THE RECITATION. 63 

IV. 

THE RECITATION. 

The discussion of making plans and the guide plans given on pre- 
vious pages show the processes that appear in any good recitation or 
series of recitations. It is the purpose in this place to treat briefly some 
of the leading features of this important period somewhat from the 
standpoint of its inspirational value. Finally, there is a general sum- 
mary of the various activities and purposes of the recitation made as 
suggestions of the manner and spirit in which it should be conducted. 

23. — Importance. 

The school is the legalized instrument of society for the 
education of future citizens. The recitation is the focal point 
toward which all other activities of the school converge. In 
fact, all other things are merely accessory to this particular exer- 
cise. For its proper operation school houses are built, apparatus 
furnished, and teachers provided. Since so much of the school's 
purpose depends upon this one thing it is important that every 
teacher should get into the spirit of it and grasp its full meaning. 

24. — General Purpose. 

In a general way, the end to be reached is the instructing, 
the uplifting, the inspiring of the pupil. It is in this period that 
he has that close personal contact with the teacher that should 
lead him to determine that he will be more and do more than 
he ever would have decided that he would be and do under any 
other circumstances. The recitation period that closes without 
leaving some pupils with a tendency toward higher ideals, 
a larger view of life, and an impulse toward increased and re- 
newed effort, although they may not consciously recognize it, 
is, indeed, a very regretable failure. Strength, courage, power 



64 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

should be greater because of the intensity of activity aroused by 
this contact of mind with mind and personality with personality. 

iio. — Special Ends. 

But these general effects are not all the ends to be con- 
sidered. There should be definite, personal results for each pupil. 
From the recitation each should learn just where he is standing 
in the work he is attempting. This period should help him to 
realize just what he must do if he is to get along well in school 
and out of it in later life. It should impress the notion that 
there are duties to be performed that can not be slighted if one 
is to succeed in his later undertakings. This is not necessarily 
true because the teacher will not let him move along but because 
the nature of successful work is such that he can not do it without 
taking the essential preliminary steps. The testing of the pupil's 
preparation of his lesson is often mentioned as a primary purpose 
of the recitation. This is true, but it is not for the teacher's 
benefit that it is done as it so often seems to be regarded. He is 
not there as a mere examiner. The test should be of the nature to 
impress the pupil with a vivid picture of his own mental state. It 
should not always be regarded as a means of revealing his ignor- 
ance to him. However, it should help him to see clearly where 
his knowledge ends. In this process of the pupil's finding his 
mental stature the teacher is a useful instrument but it is the 
pupil that must most clearly realize the situation if there is to be 
any genuine improvement in the work. It is the skilful teacher 
only that can so mingle his testing and teaching that the child 
by comprehending his true condition is inspired with a desire 
to increase his mental possessions. A clear realization of his lim- 
itations coupled with a healthy desire and determination to ex- 
pand those limitations settles at once the question of attention 



THE RECITATION. 65 

and interest with any natural child. The real problem of the 
recitation is to manipulate the work in hand from day to day in 
such a manner that the child will recognize this boundary line 
readily and determine to make it enclose a larger area before 
another day. No effort is valuable that does not inspire the pupil 
to set up stakes over the line in new territory and then induce him 
to go about the sensible exploration and cultivation of that for- 
merly unknown realm. 

iiG. — When the Recitation Begins. 

With children old enough to use the book or other sources 
of knowledge in study or investigation the recitation really begins 
at the time of the assignment of the work for the next step in 
advance although the word does not usually suggest that amount 
of time. In this case the book or kindred object that engages 
the attention of the pupil is the instructor. There are two reasons 
for this setting of tasks for the child to work out for himself. One 
purpose is, that the teacher may have time to look after more 
pupils in this way than he could instruct if the work were all to be 
given orally. The other, and it is the chief reason, is that the 
child may have the opportunity to try his own powers and that he 
may learn to use books and other instruments of knowledge for 
himself. He thus acquires skill and confidence in the use of his 
faculties. The recitation is merely begun when the pupil is mak- 
ing his investigations. It will continue until the teacher and pupil 
recanvass the territory covered in the lesson in the next class 
hour. All the time from the assignment till the next period of 
meeting closes the ideas are taking form in the mind of the pupil. 
The time spent under the personal direction of the teacher merely 
clears up and revivifies his previous impressions and by the light 
thrown on them makes them stand out more distinctly. Atten- 



(}6 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

tion to assignments, faithfulness in study, and interest during 
the assembly period are all essential parts of the complete recita- 
tion. The steps in the process in the class room have been so 
fully illustrated in the plans of lessons given that they will not 
be repeated here. 

— 7. — Summary and Suggestions. 
These statements refer to that part of the exercise conducted 
in the class room after the pupil's study period. 

a. The class exercise is the pivotal point around which all 
other activities of the school turn. 

b. The general purpose of the class assembly period is 
instruction, illumination, and inspiration. 

c. It furnishes the necessary opportunity for that personal 
contact of teacher and pupil which is the chief factor in the latter's 
school education. 

d. The pupil learns here his own mental condition. 

c. The necessity of doing duties well is impressed at this 
time. 

f. Proper tests of powers and preparation are given. 

g. It makes things clear by the use of essential teaching 
exercises. 

h. The teacher should be regarded only as an instrument 
in this period. 

i. It determines the pupil's earnestness in study time. 

j. It demands concentration of attention. 

k. It revives old ideas and gives new impressions. 

I. It gives opportunity for the second great exercise in 
1 earning — expression. 

m. It arouses the desire to know. 

n. It creates better ideals from the way things are done 
rather than through reliance upon the subject alone for them. 



THE TEXT-BOOK. 67 



DEVICES IN TEACHING 



I. 

THE TEXT=BOOK, 



2S.— Its Place. 

At first thought it may seem to some that the text-book is 
not one of the devices used in teaching, but that it is, instead, 
a very great part of the material of the objective world carried 
into the school room, to be liquified there and poured into the 
minds of unsuspecting learners as so much mental food for the 
day. Such a view of the text-book is probably common in some 
regions even at the present time, but it should be forever ban- 
ished from the attention of thinking teachers. These books are 
but the record of the ideas made concrete in the objective world 
about us, or the symbolizing in words and other forms the 
products of the thinking and imaginative faculties of literary and 
scientific men. They only put into conventional symbols in con- 
densed form for convienent handling the certain small portions 
of the universe of truth that have been examined and thought 
suitable for the proper nourishment of the youthful mind. It 
is not the book that is to be studied, but the thing about which 
the book is written. Consequently the book is simply a device, 
and, while an important one, it should nevertheless be recognized 
at its proper value and given a place where it is thus found to 
belong. The text-book is a very essential device. 



68 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

^J).— The Good Text=Book. 

1. For grade work at least, it is true to the instincts and 
experiences of childhood rather than rigidly logical. It seeks the 
interests and experiences of the learner as its starting point 
instead of the logical formula of scientific classification. The 
logical presentation of the government of the United States is 
from its beginnings down to the customs of the present in the 
election of president and the like. The child, however, sees our 
government as it is revealed to him through local institutions, 
elections, and presidential campaigns. To him the beginnings of 
things are the parts he experiences. The sensible text-book 
and its user take advantage of this fact and reach the mind along 
lines of least resistance, which is always good policy in school 
work as well as in the field of electrical engineering. 

2. In each advancing step the matter is based upon what 
has been done in previous study, and new difficulties are pre- 
sented singly and in suggestive relation to what has gone before. 
On each page of the book, even in advanced grades, there is 
little that is distinctively new. Some new things appear, but 
there is such a readjusting of the old that much that seems at first 
sight to be new is simply an old friend in new garb. If the book 
can be used at all this must be true. That is the best text-book 
that makes this transition from old to new clearly but gradually. 

3. General principles, rules, or definitions are reached 
through a process of sensible inductions as much as possible, and 
these generalizations are used as types, illustrations, or as new 
individual facts for broader inductions or generalizations. When 
these principles, rules, or definitions are developed, they are 
stated in clear, simple language for the use of pupils, rather than 
being left to the unsystematic statements made by pupils them- 
selves. These principles are the class descriptions from which 



THE TEXT-BOOK. 69 

by a process of deduction new individuals of the class are recog- 
nized when seen. 

4. In the opening of each new section that may have a 
definite relation to matter covered by the book on earlier pages 
there are convenient references to these topics as a review to 
be used as an introduction to the themes about to be discussed. 
These references are very helpful in keeping the work properly 
unified. Quite in keeping with the thought suggested in the 
preceding sentences is the practice noticed in some of the most 
recent texts in the use of a part of a page before each main sec- 
tion to state briefly but clearly what is proposed to be worked 
out in the section. This gives the teacher and class a view of the 
author's aim at a time when it appeals most directly to them. 

5. A good text-book is clearly divided into chapters, or 
sections of similar importance, with topics and sub-topics prop- 
erly lettered and numbered that the learner may readily find his 
way with reasonable assurance that he has the proper co-ordi- 
nation and sub-ordination of points assigned him for study. 

6. At the close of the discussion of a general topic good 
texts are now making a summary or giving a recapitulation of 
salient points for use of pupil and instructor as drills or devices 
for fixing in the mind that which is most essential to the success 
of later work. These may be said to be summarized recapitula- 
tions of the daily work, thus giving a unity to the thought that 
otherwise would be lost. 

7. In subjects that admit of it there should be illustrations 
by means of pictures or cuts. These should be selected because 
of their value as illustrations of the thought intended to be con- 
veyed and not merely to satisfy an unthinking demand, as in 
some popular magazines, or to make the book attractive for the 
idle moments of the child. 



70 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

8. A sensible preface is by no means a valueless part of the 
text. In this part the author should be able to set forth his pur- 
pose in writing, suggest the strong points of the book as he 
sees them, and give a general survey of the field that he has at- 
tempted to cover. Closely related to this are the suggestions to 
teachers that may well be made by the author at the opening of 
the discussion, and as notes where they will be especially helpful 
in the body of the book. 

9. A well balanced table of contents is an essential of a 
first-class text-book. Within this there should be a list of maps 
and illustrations. And of somewhat the same nature and even 
more essential in many respects is the index at the end of the 
volume. This is to be exhaustive and compactly arranged. It 
makes the book doubly valuable as a tool. In most books the 
pronunciation of the important words given in the index would 
be a very helpful feature. 

10. Good text-books give references showing where help 
may be found for supplementary work. 

30. — In the Hands of the Teacher. 

1. A tool. To the teacher it holds a double place. It is a 
tool and in great measure it must suggest the matter that is to 
be used as the means of developing the child. It presents a 
two-fold problem to the one who would be the master in all 
respects of what he attempts to do. Although itself a device, 
it still, in its arrangement and treatment of the subject matter, 
becomes a study in method and device, or a work of practical 
pedagogy. To use it well this side of its nature as well as the 
subject matter should be fully grasped. It must be mastered as 
to plan, scope, and divisions, and why each is what it is before 
its full value is reached by the teacher and class alike. The ever 



THE TEXT-BOOK. 71 

recurring questions, "Why this matter that is in the book? How- 
does it connect with what pupils already know? Why divided 
into the parts that we find here? Why the arrangement of topics 
that is made? 1 ' Or another list of questions may be asked, 
"What is the purpose of the table of contents? For what are 
the topical outlines and summaries at the close of the discussion? 
Of what practical use is the index?" These are a few of the 
questions that suggest themselves for the investigation of the 
thoughtful teacher. "It is probable that every teacher will care- 
fully study the movement through from the first chapter to the 
last before beginning the use of the book in the class-room." 
This quotation is taken from a text that has appeared recently 
and it shows the attitude that the authors think the teacher 
should take toward the book before attempting its use, and this 
is true of all text-books. 

2. Teachers' mastery. With the hurried teacher, as almost 
every one is destined to be a great part of the time, this mastery 
of the text is no small matter. And in such cases the pedagogical 
aspect at least is sure to be overlooked and in far too many cases 
even the grasp of the subject matter is not such as to make the 
teaching inspiring. There are four or five points of suggestion 
that may be made to one desiring to get command of the book 
in both its phases most readily. A study of the preface is almost 
an essential, not for pupils but for teachers. The table of con- 
tents should be mastered that the teacher may get a view of the 
entire field. This may be accomplished by use of the analysis 
of the contents generally found in the opening pages of the book, 
supplemented by a use of the body of the book, examining the 
pages that are given to certain divisions. Comparing the num- 
ber of pages taken up by different topics is a good way to get an 
idea of the relative treatment of the various parts of the subject. 



72 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

The suggestions to teachers merit the closest attention. 
These are found on early pages and scattered as notes through- 
out the text. They generally contain the very essence of the best 
that could be written to help a teacher with the very point in 
question. To the thinking teacher they will be what the name 
implies, "suggestions." They will not lose all their force on the 
subject to which they may be attached, but will be carried over 
into other years and to other fields of teaching. Try to see what 
principles are present that make these suggestions useful. 

The teacher who uses an index well will be able to master 
the book more readily himself, but in that very mastery he will 
become a leader directing the attention of the pupil to that ever 
necessary aid to accurate scholarship and ready use of books and 
libraries. 

31. — Illustrations and Summaries. 

A closer study of the illustrations that are made in the text 
is one of the best sources of a teacher's inspiration. These illus- 
trations may be in the form of pictures, cuts, stories, or examples. 
They furnish a starting point from which the original teacher 
will extend his range until all experiences, readings, and objects 
supply a growing stock of illustrations that is always ready and 
fresh. A careful investigation of the materials shown in a sum- 
mary and a thoughtful determination of the purposes of such a 
summary will lead one to become a more systematic teacher. 
He should habitually lead pupils to gather up in condensed clas- 
sification the products of the study and recitation. To become 
a master of grouping facts and principles is a long step toward 
success in practical life, and the pupil should have the benefit 
of it in his school training. 



THE TEXT-BOOK. 73 

32. — Some Mistakes in Use of Text=Books. 

1. Lack of discrimination between fundamental points and 
accidental qualities belonging to the thing discussed. 

2. Too close confinement to the text on ordinary matters 
and not enough supplementary references. Also in the want of 
illustration from the pupil's experiences and outside life. 

3. Slavishly following the order of topics in the book with- 
out adjusting them to the variable conditions that various classes 
and localities impose. 

4. Neglecting certain points and telling pupils that those 
topics are of no consequence simply because the teacher is too 
indolent to get a good understanding of them, as is often done 
with such points as the metric system in arithmetic, climatic 
causes in geography, and even the important dates in history. 

5. Not having pupils to learn definitely, facts, definitions, 
and principles after they have been properly presented through 
illustration and example. 

6. Neglecting to show pupils how to use the book to best 
advantage. 



74 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

II. 

QUESTIONING. 

33.— Its Place. 

Of the multitude of devices that have been invented for 
arousing, instructing, stimulating, and probing the learning mind 
that of questioning stands easily in the front rank. Its general 
use leads the more readily into the notion that it is an instru- 
ment of easy manipulation. No greater error can find lodgement 
in the mind of any teacher, and especially in that of one who has 
not served years in the actual operations of the school room. 
In the acquisition of this art, books may be read with great profit, 
as they may teach the fundamental principles that must be in 
the view of every successful questioner. They can not, how- 
ever, give the delicate balancing of forces that is the product of 
the peculiarities of the subject, the personality of the child and 
the general good sense of the teacher. Nothing short of the 
most painstaking practice in formulating questions, deciding 
why each is proposed, and in watching the effectiveness of each 
in reaching the end for which it is given can give one skill in 
this most difficult of class-room exercises. 

34. — Teacher's Comprehension. 

He must realize his office as an instrument in the education 
of the child. The education of the individual is the product of 
the action and reaction that have taken place between his soul 
and mind and the matter and forces outside himself. In a very 
great degree the teacher is merely the adjuster of the mind of the 
pupil to the matter and conditions that surround it. He is a me- 
diator, a stimulator, an illustrator, an invigorator. It is very 



QUESTIONING. 75 

evident that no person can perform the part of a good teacher 
without a full grasp of the subject, for how can he see what that 
subject is to do in the education of the child until he sees what 
the subject itself contains? Likewise, how can he ask stimu- 
lating, logical, sensible questions without knowing the relations 
that various parts of the matter bear to each other? He might 
be able to take the text book of days now gone and ask the ques- 
tions printed conveniently at the bottom of the page, but he 
could not be anything more than a mechanical articulator of the 
ideas of another. Such work is not above that of the phonograph, 
which would have in its favor the idea that it was doing just 
what it pretends in the fact that it does not purport to do more 
than mechanically to repeat, as an echo, what had been given it to 
utter. The teacher must know his subject matter. He must 
arrange logically the points to be taught. He must then deter- 
mine the best means for bringing this matter within the grasp 
of the learning mind. Some questioning will be necessary with- 
out a doubt. A knowledge of the subject is but one side of the 
knowledge to be possessed. How to get the pupils to ask ques- 
tions with an earnest desire to know is an important end that 
should demand the thought of the teacher. A knowledge of the 
mind in general, and especially of the mental condition of the 
grade taught and as much as possible of the individual pupils, is 
an absolute requirement of the person who would become an 
expert in using devices to fulfill the office of a helpful teacher. 

35. — Purposes. 

1. Finding the pupil's mental condition preparatory to dis- 
cussing with him the subject matter of the lesson. A great part 
of this may well be done at the time of the assignment of the 
lesson, so that he may have the advantage of a better compre- 



76 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

hension of his own condition while lie studies. Also it is not 
possible to give proper directions for study until the condition 
of the pupil's mind is ascertained. This preliminary questioning 
will be repeated as a part of the introduction at the opening of 
the next recitation period, not in exact form of course, but in 
sense and with additional exercises. 

2. That the thought may be properly led out and obscuri- 
ties made clear during the pupils' discussion of the lesson. Start- 
ing questions and guiding questions are in place in this division 
of the recitation period. They should be logical in arrangement 
and applied only at opportune moments if they are to reach the 
desired end, however. 

3. A final fixing and associating operation should take 
place at the end of the time for discussion, and much of this can 
most economically be done through the use of sharp, sensible 
questions delivered in a wide-awake, inspiring tone. Pupils 
should be held accountable for getting something each period, 
and they also have the right to have such a test applied that they 
may know for themselves whether the time has resulted in any 
positive advance. 

36. — Good Questions. 

1. Simple in language and easily within the grasp of the 
person that is to answer it. The thought of the answer and not 
the analysis of the question to get at its meaning should engage 
the attention of the pupil. 

2. A directness that admits of no doubt as to the object 
toward which the mind should be pointed in trying to answer the 
question. Ambiguous and uncertain questions are accountable 
for much of the apparently careless answering that is prevalent 
in all grades of schools from the primary to the university. 



QUESTIONING. 77 

They should at least be clear enough to make it possible for the 
student to make a very intelligent guess, and thus get some 
training in the scientific process of arriving at new truth, if 
nothing more. 

3. The wording of the question should be such that it re- 
quires thought from the learner in his attempt to answer. In 
general, the following are not good questions: Such as may be 
answered by yes or no. * 

Elliptical questions that require but one word to be supplied 
to make the statement of the answer. Another that teaches what 
a good question is by illustrating the opposite is the one that 
ends with the ever recurring, "Is it not?" Good questions sel- 
dom are of the nature to suggest an alternative. Neither do they 
ask for a repetition of the thought of the answer just given, or at 
least rarely should this be so. Verbosity is another fault still 
to be found in the questioning of some teachers, such as "Samuel, 
I wish you to tell us what the effect of multiplying both dividend 
and divisor by the same number may be." The mincing, choppy 
question that leaves the subject matter in the mind of the learner 
in the most disjointed manner possible is too frequently heard in 
what is otherwise many a good recitation period. 

37. — Wrong Management in Questioning. 

1. Naming the pupil before giving the question. This ex- 
cuses all members of the class except the one named from any 
responsibility or part in this particular item of the lesson. All 
pupils should be responsible for the answer to each question. 

2. Asking a question and changing it several times in suc- 

* Such a question when followed by a demand for a reason for the answer is some- 
times admissible. In rapid tests of the mental condition to lead the learner into the 
recognition of his own ignorance it may be useful at times It also can be used when 
admission of a fact and the consent of the will are the ends in view. But it is so fre- 
quently misused that the teacher should avoid forming the habit of asking such questions, 



78 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

cession without giving the time necessary for the pupil to collect 
the thought suggested by one before the next is given. This 
suggests uncertainty on the part of the teacher and is a great 
disadvantage to the thinking powers of the class. 

3. Looking at the class in a way that members soon learn 
by the manner of the teacher to whom the question is to be 
directed. 

4. Passing in a certain order along a line or around the 
class in naming the one expected to respond. Even with the best 
that can be done pupils will be trying to divine the next step to 
try to be ready for it without giving proper thought to what 
is the duty of the present moment. This leads directly to the 
next thought. 

5. Much harm is done by the idea that pupils must answer 
all questions instantly after the last word is spoken by the teacher. 
This practice is the cause of very hasty and superficial thinking, 
or rather guessing, with no thinking before attempting the answer 
on the part of the pupil in far too many cases. 

6. The fatal "developing" question is a fruitful source of 
waste of time. There is as much sense in seining in a dry mill- 
pond for herring as there is in searching in some minds by a 
process of questioning for historical and other facts too evidently 
not at home tliere. Not all teaching can be done by the Socratic 
question pure and simple. 

7. Allowing each question to grow out of the previous an- 
swer is a sure way to become a wandering teacher and develop 
a wondering or a listless class. A route marked out and an end 
to be reached is the only safe method of procedure. 

8. Too much questioning makes a talking teacher and 
leaves the class with nothing tangible with which the various bits 
of knowledge may associate themselves, and surely does little 



QUESTIONING. 79 

to improve the fiber of the mind. And with the same exercise 
comes that of keeping at one pupil too long. In the ordinary 
teaching exercise all members of the class should feel the force 
of the questions by frequent invitations to contribute to the an- 
swer side of the account. 

3S. — Some Means of Improvement. 

1. A realizing sense of the need of more ability in this 
particular. Here as elsewhere ignorance is bliss — for the teacher 
— but expensive for the pupil. Until one becomes conscious of 
the need of improvement in any particular he will never make 
any advancement in that line. 

2. Careful study of the lesson to be taught with full an- 
alysis of the matter into the leading heads with the proper sub- 
titles. These should be seen in full in their past connection 
and as to the end toward which they look. 

3. After the points of the lesson are fully determined the 
idea of devices that are appropriate for the presentation of each 
point to the minds of the various members of the class must be 
considered. What topics and questions will best introduce the 
new lesson. In the matter to be presented what questions can the 
teacher ask that will lead the pupil to see the thing he should see? 
The stage of the work, the environment of the class, relation of 
divisions of the subject matter to each other all combine to make 
the questioning an individual case that can not be appropriately 
reached, excepting in the general way, by the study of lessons on 
questioning. The reader should sit down, and, having the points 
to be made and the class well in mind, he should endeavor to 
see what are the questions most likely to be effective in starting 
the required mental action in the pupils. If time in any degree 
permits there should be a written list of questions, prepared, not 



80 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

for use in the class-room, but as a means of starting the mind of 
the teacher in the line of proper questioning when he comes 
into the presence of his class. Questioning is an art in which 
skill is acquired as in other arts by constant, thoughtful practice. 
Writing out lists of questions that are then left at home, more 
than doubles the opportunity, for the writing is more impressive 
than the oral questioning before the class. 

4. The first suggestion to come to the student teacher 
when about to make a study of the questions for a particular 
class exercise should be of the nature indicated by one or more 
of the following questions, "Why should the pupil know the 
thing that I have in mind to teach him here? "Why do I ask him 
the question?" "Is any question needed?" "Could this point be 
made clearer by the use of some other device rather than the 
question I propose asking?" "Are the questions I am making 
comprehensive enough or am I making them too simple to stim- 
ulate the minds?" "Do I have too many questions?" "Are they 
made for the bright pupil, for the average pupil or for the dull 
one?" "Am I fixing up a formal set of answers in my mind to 
which the answers of the pupils must conform in order that their 
efforts may meet approval?" "Is it probable that some of the 
members of the class will be able to give correct answers to these 
questions more readily than I can do it myself?" "Are all of these 
questions relevant and to the point?" "What questions are the 
pupils likely to ask that I have not prepared to meet by my 
preparation of this list?" "Would my class have a puzzled ex- 
pression on their faces at the proposal of any particular one of 
this list of questions?" "Whose fault is it likely to be, in the 
questioner, or in the members of the class because of lack of 
proper preparation of the lesson?" 



QUESTIONING. 81 

39. — The Manner of the Teacher. 

1. Vivacity. The teacher who thinks and puts questions 
in a way that bespeaks a live, active mind, is always at a premium 
with the class. The slow questioner is sure to have a listless and 
unthinking class. Questions are a great means of keeping the 
minds of pupils active, but how can this be done by a teacher 
whose very manner suggests sluggishness, even to the verge of 
laziness? When the pupils can think ahead and have the answer 
ready before the question has taken full shape in the mind and 
words of the instructor the exercise has little in it of value, for 
education is founded on inspiration through leadership. Avoid 
the drawling tone, the hesitating inflection in the question. 
Teaching is based on life. It is life to teacher and learner when 
done aright. Proper grading and sensible wording of the ques- 
tion is but half the task, it must have a strong force of animation 
in the teacher to wing it so that it reaches and stimulates the 
mind of the pupil to effective answering. High tones and erratic 
gestures are not indicative of vivacity, and they should be avoided 
here as in all other teaching exercises, but to reach their mark 
effectively the questions must be tipped with the fire of a living 
spirit. Make your questions live. 

2. Ardor. There is such a thing as a lively manner that is 
not suggestive of a great amount of earnestness. The eye and 
countenance of the questioner should glow with an expression of 
intensity of purpose that will kill all thought of idleness and in- 
attention on the part of the pupils. Ardor and a manner in ques- 
tioning that portray the full, earnest soul will smother disorder 
and stimulate to activity when all artificial means of rewards or 
punishment have failed. Putting questions to inattentive mem- 
bers of the class is of little consequence until those questions 
come from one who puts so much force into them that the man- 



82 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

ner of the questioner and not the fact of being rescued from his 
dreaminess starts a new stream of life in the learner. Be in dead 
earnest when you question. 

3. Sympathy. To get best results from questioning there 
must be a feeling or sympathy for the pupil. Not a sentimental 
expression of feeling that may or may not exist, but a genuine 
appreciation of the difficulties of childhood and the peculiar per- 
plexities of the subject in hand. The cold questioner who does 
his work as if for hire alone can expect little in the way of re- 
sponsiveness on the part of his class. The attitude of an exam- 
iner as if conducting the exercise for the civil service commission 
is entirely out of place in the teacher. Far too often is the ques- 
tioning of the teacher done with a cold, indifferent manner that 
represses rather than inspires. All pupils, and especially the 
timid, are in need of sympathy on the part of the teacher, and in 
no other way is this more effectively shown than in the tones, ges- 
tures, facial expressions, and attitude of the leader of the class in 
his questioning. Vivacity, ardor, and sympathy are not incom- 
patible, but are the elements of a balanced manner. The first and 
second save the last from degenerating into a foolish sentimen- 
tality, and this last prevents the others from running riot with 
the judgment and making a task-master where there should be 
a helpful friend. Temper all questioning with a generous sympathy 
devoid of undue sentiment. 

40. — Questions and Answers of Pupils. 

1. Their questions. These readily drop into about three 
classes. 

a. There is the irrelevant, childish question that is the 
product of the desire to get attention and to satisfy the selfish 
propensities by hearing one's self talk. Such questioning on the 



QUESTIONING. 83 

part of pupils needs checking at once, as it has no educational 
value and is a training in the wrong direction entirely. Be ready 
with a question to meet the useless question of the talking pupil. 

b. The question deliberately planned to set the teacher 
to talking along some line of special hobby, or to get him to do 
the reciting. Look within for the cause of this and be on guard 
over your own talking propensities to see that the purpose of the 
class in bringing up the question is thwarted. 

c. There is likewise the proper question for the pupil to 
ask, and it should have polite treatment at all times, although 
there are some of these, even, that are asked out of season. When 
in proper place they should receive the attention they merit at 
once in the way of an answer. If they are not in the right place 
they may be laid aside for the time until the exercise has pro- 
gressed so far that they may be profitably taken up. Honest 
questions should be recognized and should receive treatment in 
accordance with their merit. 

2. Answers. In a manner similar to the questions of pupils 
these may be put into three classes. 

a. Wholly unacceptable. In this category are several com- 
mon types. (1). Those entirely wrong. (2). Wrong through 
haste and thoughtlessness. (3). Careless and rambling. (4). 
Not in line with the question. (5). Couched in slang or other 
forms of slovenly language. (6). Dishonest. 

b. Acceptable through sifting. (1). Honest but only partly 
right. (2). Thoughtful but in language that needs attention. 
(3). Showing some comprehension of the question but lacking 
in full grasp of it. (4). Honest effort but giving evidence that 
the question was entirely misinterpreted. 

c. Wholly acceptable. (1). Honest, thoughtful, in good 
language, and correct. 



84 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

To discern quickly the value of an answer and give it the 
proper kind of recognition gives evidence of a mastery of the 
art of questioning, for to know good answers at a moment's 
notice is the outgrowth of a full understanding of the effect of 
questioning. 

Consult Landon's Art of Questioning; Fitch's Art of Ques- 
tioning; and School Management, Tompkins; for a more ex- 
tended discussion of this topic. 



THE ILLUSTRATION. 85 

III. 

THE ILLUSTRATION. 

41,— Value of. 

It is probably not too strong language to say that sugges- 
tion plays a more prominent part in the education of the indi- 
vidual than direct observation does. In fact, observation pure 
and simple without suggestion of the imaginative faculty is hardly 
possible to the wide awake mind. "So it is always found that the 
true effects of eloquence are where the expression suggests a 
region of thought, a dim vista of imagery, or an oceanic depth of 
feeling, beyond what is actually contained in the sentences." — 
Bishop Huntington. It is in this realm of imagery, this field of 
likeness and unlikeness, that the teacher must find his greatest 
inspiration and help. This disposition of the mind to see things 
other than they are because of the intrusion of imaginative 
elements must be controlled by a sensible and rich accumulation 
of ideas of real things from personal contact with them by the 
learner. Strong observational power and the active imagination 
should be made to supplement each other in the class room. 

The mechanical teacher is painfully prosy and oppressive to 
his class. In the main, the explanation for this prosiness and 
dullness is due to the very few points of contact that he has been 
able to discover between the matter he is trying to teach and the 
experiences and imaginative activities of his pupils. No greater 
power can come to a teacher than that of seeing almost instinc- 
tively the need of an apt illustration and possessing the informa- 
tion and courage to use such illustrations even though they must 
seem to be drawn from simple and homely themes. Holmes has 
said that a dull speaker and a lively listener reminded him of a 



86 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

crow with a kingbird after him, and about the same is the pre- 
dicament of a teacher that is slow in illustration. If the teacher 
is devoid of skill in this part of his training lie should at least 
allow the pupil to make himself understood through his tendency 
to illustrate his own thought. From these pupils he may then 
get a clue to his needs and improve himself in this very necessary 
art. 

42.— Key to Attention. 

The happy use of illustrations is the key to the difficulty of 
holding the attention of pupils. Help and suggestions as to im- 
portance of the study of this aid to good teaching can be found 
in all books and chapters in educational literature where the 
question under discussion is that of securing and holding atten- 
tion. The live teacher is always on the alert for such helps. The 
mind is able to see just so much in a subject as it brings to that 
subject in interpretative materials, and this makes it imperative 
that the instructor should be constantly accumulating a rich fund 
of materials to use in suggesting to the class the ideas that will 
make clear that which is hazy and abstract. Sources of illustra- 
tions are ever at hand. Occupations, seasons, weather, plants, 
animals, newspapers, books, magazines, and all other avenues of 
mental life are teeming with useful material for him who has the 
time and disposition to make them come to his bidding. The 
school studies through the principle of correlation may be made 
to help each other. Geography throws a flood of light upon his- 
tory and literature, and these in turn give life and meaning to the 
facts of geography. 

43.— What It Is. 

"An illustration is something already known, or easily appre- 
hended through the senses, which is made use of to assist the mind 



THE ILLUSTRATION. 87 

in its effort to comprehend something which is unknown." Joseph 
Landon. In general the illustration presents nothing new in itself, 
but aims rather to make the new thoughts clear by arousing in 
the mind old ideas similar to the new ideas to be presented. Like- 
ness is the teacher's key and while it must be shown often in the 
form of word pictures, real pictures, and the use of objects them- 
selves not altogether similar, it still unbolts the door that shuts 
the new from the inner life of the learner. In the broadest sense 
all teaching is picturing and illustrating. One teacher makes a 
subject glow with interest and seem to live again in the pupils, 
while another seems to repress and deaden all interest, and the 
real source of the difficulty is in the difference in picturing power. 
Fortunately this is not a realm that is left open only to the select 
few, but one that all thinking people may in a degree possess. 
We learn to illustrate by illustrating, we learn to picture before the 
pupil's mind by picturing before our own minds, and we learn to 
image by imaging. "At the heart of even the boldest of such 
instances of picture-work, there lies a true and universal principle. 
And we may be sure that we are more likely to err on the side of 
stiffness and conventionality (which is often sheer laziness and 
ignorance), than on the side of reality and life." — Walter L. 
Hervey. 

44. — How Things are Made Clear. 

There are three ways of making clear most points that come 
up in the teaching of ordinary subjects. (1). Explanation. (2). 
Illustration. (3). Definition. As an illustration of these the 
following are given : The statement may be made to a child that 
most things are porous, but he does not understand the word, 
"porous," and it must be made clear to him. The explanation 
would be made by substituting language that is simpler for the 



88 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

child and thus more readily understood by him for the word that 
is troubling him, i. e., porous masses have holes in them. Illus- 
tration would make the matter clear to him by exhibiting sub- 
stances that have the quality in question quite well marked in their 
structure, and he would thus see for himself the meaning of the 
word. Definition would do as follows, as the definition from a 
late dictionary shows: porous, "having pores; pervious because 
of pores." In this case, as in most cases, it is seen that a process 
of illustration is probably the best method for making the desired 
impression on the mind of the learner. An illustration presents 
a particular thing as exemplifying the general quality mentioned, 
or it places a well known particular for one not so well known, 
and that is needing clearing up in the mind of the learner. Defini- 
tion is the most difficult, and would generally come as a summary 
of the ideas gained through explanation and illustration. 

45. — Qualities of Illustrations. 

1. Clearness. A cloudy illustration is worse than none at 
all. It must always be clearer than the truth it was intended to 
illustrate or it should not be used. 

2. Aptness, or truth. An individual that does not possess 
the qualities that belong to the general class for which it is sup- 
posed to stand is not apt or true as an illustration. Neither is 
the individual that is not a near counterpart of the other individ- 
ual for which it is presented well adapted for this purpose. 

3. Brevity. This is a quality that should by all means be 
kept in view. Some very good teachers and preachers in most 
other respects forget this, and cover up the thought with their 
illustrations, or the pupil or listener forgets what was under con- 
sideration before the point in the illustration is reached. 

4. Familiarity. In fact, a thing is not an illustration unless 



THE ILLUSTRATION. 89 

it is familiar to the person for whose mind it was prepared. The 
whole foundation principle of the process is the old illuminating 
the new. 

5. Quaintness. The freshness of a thing gives it power as 
an illuminator. Old things seen in new lights are always in de- 
mand. To put forth an old truth in new setting is in the line of 
the highest of originality. Quaintness is much to be desired so 
long as it is restrained from running over the border line into 
the realm of oddities and peculiarities. 

6. Beauty. The mind not only delights in the beauty of 
the illustration because of the new truth that it thus has secured, 
but there is a subtle influence going out from the matter used 
that leaves a refined taste and a whetted appetite for that which 
has the element of grace and delicacy in it. Coarse illustrations 
are out of place in the school room. 

7. In general. The whole world of imagery should be ex- 
plored for its richest gems of light reflecting likenesses. All 
illustration finds its full power in the discovery of "likes" — this 
is like that and so forth. What thing that is familiar to my pupils 
is this new truth like? It is true that those illustrations that spring 
full robed from the inspirations of the moment in the class-room 
are the best, but they will not spring in that way unless cultivated 
in the off duty moments and made possible by a systematic effort 
in observation and reading. 

46. — How Teachers May Improve in This Power. 

(In that valuable monograph, The Art of Securing Attention, 
by J. G. Fitch, we find several pages given to the subject of illus- 
tration. One section is of so much value right here that, while it 
is not quoted in exact words, it is given so nearly in the form of 



90 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

the book that acknowledgement is made of the source from which 
the thoughts of the following- topic are taken.) 

Endeavor to remember carefully things seen and to describe 
them afterwards. Practice more the art of telling a story. When 
a circumstance has been read or met sit down and try to repro- 
duce it in one's own language. By watching carefully the meta- 
phors and illustrations that impress his own mind and then 
carefully storing them in memory with a view to using them in 
class as opportunity may offer. In preparing to give a lesson 
studying all the details and surrounding circumstances until he 
can realize the pictures himself and feels his power to reproduce 
them for the class, or better, sees how he may lead the pupil to 
form similar pictures for himself. By trying to see how to make 
graphic illustrations of things that may be pictured to the eye. 
By always keeping in mind the necessity of rendering one's teach- 
ing more vivid and constantly keeping on the alert for material 
with which to reach that purpose. 

47. — Devices used in Illustrating. 

In that excellent little work, How to Secure and Retain 
Attention, (every teacher should read it), by James L. Hughes, 
there is a list of devices given, and it is repeated here in brief form 
to give a general view of the means at command for purposes of 
illustration. 

I. Those illustrations that appeal to the imagination through 
the eye. (1). Blackboard, (a). Diagrammatic, (b). Pictorial. 
(2). Picture, map, and chart. (3). Model. (4). Object. (5). 
Experiments. (G). Dramatic. 

II. Those that appeal directly to the imagination. 

Stories, incidents, personal experiences, descriptions of noble 
deeds and the like. 



THE ILLUSTRATION. 91 

48.— The Blackboard. 

1. The modern school room is generally supplied with 
blackboard and in the houses of latest construction there is pro- 
vision for a reasonably good supply and of a fair quality at least. 
This board is a means to an end and not the end in itself. 
Exploitation of problems and grammatical diagrams on the board 
by pupils is about all the use that is made of it in many schools. 
This is by no means all the use that should be made of it, and 
possibly it may be allowable to suggest that there are even more 
important uses to which it may be put than the one mentioned. 
It should be used by pupils for some exercises in all subjects. The 
child should be able to supplement his seat work with neat writ- 
ten work and drawing on the board. Both teacher and pupils 
should use it in pictorial and diagrammatic illustrating. Its abuse 
is to be avoided, however. 

2. A few quotations suggesting the use of the blackboard 
and the importance of having pupils do something for themselves 
in following the teacher are given below. 

The wise teacher uses the blackboard almost constantly. 
* * * * The board, the slate and the paper are important 
educational aids and should be fully utilized. * * * * After 
a subject is mastered in detail it is reviewed in outline. * * * * 
We begin with particulars and work up to diagrams. — Baldwin. 

The use of the hands is the only certain way of compelling 
pupils to attend to their work. * * * * In all blackboard 
illustrating done by the teacher, the pupil should follow on slate 
or paper, and usually part by part after the teacher. — Hughes. 

Every thing that admits of it should be drawn on the slate, 
(or board), instead of being explained in words. Pictures, draw- 
ings, casts, photographs, models, plans, maps, antiquities, etc., in 
illustration of our texts, the more the better. — Sedgwick. 



92 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

Fertility in device, in illustration, in graphic drawing, should 
be a professional characteristic. From your own resources add 
vividness and reality to the contents of the text. Study home 
surroundings and experience as a means of illustration. — Mc- 
Murry. 

3. The pictorial work that may be done is limited by the 
skill and ingenuity alone that the teacher may bring to that phase 
of her daily duties. Word pictures of the reading lesson may be 
made to assume form and shape and seem to live again in the few 
strokes on the board. Geographical features can readily be rep- 
resented in almost unending variety. Plant products, especially, 
lend themselves to such illustrative work on the board. These 
are but suggestive. Easy drawings for the geography class are 
at hand every day. No subject is barren in the opportunity for 
the use of the board in pictorial illustration. It is a field as yet 
but poorly cultivated. In the line of diagrammatic illustration 
there is a broad field for investigation. The thing that comes to 
mind most readily with most teachers when the diagram is men- 
tioned is the analysis of sentences in the grammar class by the 
diagram. This, however, is one of the least valuable of the dia- 
grammatic illustrations. Relations in arithmetic, comparative 
areas, length of rivers, miles of railroad, growth of population, 
increase in products and other statistical facts as well as abstract 
ideas may be made to assume intelligible form by a judicious use 
of this means of illustration. All board work should be neat. 

1. There are several reasons why teachers do not use tne 
board more freely as an agent in making clear the instruction 
from day to day. One of these is the failure to recognize the 
great need there is for the use of something to render the instruc- 
tion more concrete. It has been the custom too much to teach 
words rather than ideas with words as the mere signs of ideas. 



THE ILLUSTRATION. 93 

A second hindrance is the inability to recognize the salient points 
in a lesson that lend themselves most readily to such a means 
of interpretation. This side of the teacher's work requires care 
and study as well as any other line. To see quickly where a hasty 
drawing or a simple diagram will give new meaning to a point is 
a prime characteristic in a teacher. An additional point and prob- 
ably the one that stands in the ordinary teacher's way more com- 
pletely than either of the others, or the two combined, is the sup- 
erstition that she can not draw, or that her attempts would be so 
crude as to excite unfavorable comment. Such surrendering to 
one's timidity and fears is not becoming to one who aspires to 
leadership of the young. There are failures innumerable along 
the highway of life due to this cause alone as compared with one 
due to the other tendency of over confidence. Common sense 
and a firm will may work wonders here. "Our fears do make 
cowards of us all." 

5. Teachers can improve. It would be a serious reflection 
on the intelligence and persistency of the teaching fraternity to 
assert that it is beyond the power of teachers to improve them- 
selves in this particular line. They can and should improve. The 
difficulty lies in a great measure in the inability to see things. 
There is a lack in the imaging power, even of that power that 
simply recalls what has once been seen, but is not now at hand. 
The power to recall the outline and features of an object can be 
cultivated, and also the power to construct what has never been 
seen from the elements that descriptions, pictures, and similar 
objects near at hand furnish. If the imaginative faculty can be 
cultivated then the power to illustrate better even as to the use of 
the blackboard can be improved. Clear mental images lead to 
clear speaking and teaching, and they lead also to clear drawing. 
Muscle training is necessary in some degree, but it is a matter of 



<J4 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

mind training in far greater degree. Teachers may improve con- 
stantly with little expense in time by trying to find the lines that 
give character to the landscape and all views that strike the eye 
'as one walks the streets, by examination of pictures in text books, 
magazines, advertisements, cartoons, and the like, and then in 
spare moments trying to recall and reproduce in a few lines on 
the board or on paper. The blackboard is here and it should be 
made a living power in the operations of the school. 

Aside from the help that school journals are constantly fur- 
nishing along the way, there are inexpensive books that are very 
suggestive for one who has the interest to investigate and to 
think. These are too numerous for mention here, but their excel- 
lencies and the low rate at which they may be obtained should 
encourage any teacher to make a study of this question. (See 
list of reference books.) 

40. — Pictures, Maps, Charts. 

1. Pictures should be selected for the simplicity with which 
they tell their story. They are better for not having too much 
color and a great amount of detail. The thing to be illustrated 
should stand out clearly and have nothing of the nature of a 
puzzle picture about it. There is probably no subject in which 
this aid is not useful. It is a good sign that language books are 
making so much use of pictures now. These are not for making 
mere sentence forms, such as — "I see a cat," "The cat has two 
eyes," and similar almost useless exercises. They are for study, 
and from the picture the pupil's imagination should be led to 
formulate a good story or description that is accurate enough as 
to fact to be a safe mental exercise, but still has enough of origi- 
nality to make it valuable language training. In reading, in his- 
tory, in geography, in fact every where the picture generally 



THE ILLUSTRATION. 95 

stands nearest to the real thing of any of the illustrative devices. 
With the cheap reproductions, the illustrations in text books, in 
magazines and papers, there is opportunity for collecting pic- 
tures, that in many cases have especial artistic merit, but at least 
all may be valuable as illustrations of particular points in teach- 
ing. Also there should be constant effort made to induce pupils 
to look at common objects, landscapes and the like, and think of 
them as they would appear in pictures. In like manner the im- 
agination should be exercised to see real things from the objects 
represented in pictures. Pictures in things and things in pictures 
should be the effort. For class use the picture should generally 
be kept out of view until the pupil has made an effort to see the 
view mentally by his own picturing faculty, and then he may see 
the picture as a means of assuring himself of his success or of 
correcting the images he has been able to form. 

2. Maps are a very common device, and while their use is 
extremely essential, too often the}^ are made the end rather than 
the means to an end. The end is not the remembering of geo- 
graphy, reading and history by map symbols, but rather the 
seeing of a real country, coast, mountains, cities, through the 
suggestiveness of the map. There are times when the map is 
all that can be held in mind, but the effort should constantly be 
made to have pupils think beyond the map to the thing sym- 
bolized by it. 

3. Charts are devices that put ideas of statistics, compari- 
sons, classifications in form to appeal to the eye. Abstract ideas 
may be made more clear by sensible charting. As with maps the 
chart should be an aid and the facts back of it should be that 
upon which the mind is ultimately to fix itself. (See list of refer- 
ence books for further suggestions on these topics.) 



96 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

50. — Collecting and Preserving Illustrative Material. 

1. Some teachers seem by instinct to select the best of illus- 
trations and know just when to use them. There may be some- 
thing of instinct and inspiration about the process, but it is more 
probable that for every good illustration used this teacher has 
mastered several not so good and discarded them without using 
them. Indifference and its nearest relative, slothfulness, are 
accountable for more of the sins of omission in this world than 
newspaper obituaries would lead one to suppose. But recently 
that veteran writer and teacher, Prof. B. A. Hinsdale, was called 
to his reward. In one of his books, Garfield and Education, the 
following quotations may be found: ''General Garfield's readiness 
on all occasions has often been remarked. Probably some have 
attributed this readiness to the inspiration of genius. The expla- 
nation lies partly in his genius, but much more in his inde- 
fatigable work. He treasured up knowledge of all kinds. 'You 
never know,' he would say, 'how soon you will need it,' Then 
he forecasted occasions and got ready to use them." On another 
page of the same book two suggestive sentences are quoted from 
one who knew Garfield as a teacher — from a man who later was 
a University president himself. His words are as follows: "He 
had rare ability at illustration. His mind was growing every 
day, and the studies that nourished him nourished his pupils as 
well." In these few sentences are wrapped a volume of sugges- 
tion for thinking teachers who realize their weakness in making 
things clear to their classes. Eyes that see, ears that hear, and 
an understanding that grasps relations readily may not make one 
a genius, but they may make a very ordinary teacher into one of 
positive force and extended usefulness. 

2. But many teachers say, "Where shall I begin to look for 
illustrative matter?" The answer is, "Everywhere." Especially 



THE ILLUSTRATION. 97 

is the community life of the locality in which one is teaching rich 
in materials for use in this way in the school room if he has the 
judgment to use things and groups, and thus avoid too promi- 
nent reference to individual men and women. The simplest and 
best objects for pointing the mind of the learner to the unseen 
truth are those with which he is in daily contact. Another source, 
aside from the ever faithful text-book, is the daily or weekly 
paper. Both the local and the patent side of the common paper 
that comes into the homes of the pupils may be utilized in this 
way. Not every thing can be used, and much that is useful is 
not to be taken bodily, but it can be helpful through the sugges- 
tions that it breathes forth if these are then worked over into a 
living product by an active brain. The stray pamphlet, even if 
mere advertising matter, has something of value for this purpose 
very frequently. Standard magazines are full from cover to cover 
— advertising pages, pictures, and all solid reading contributing 
in due proportion to him who will but levy upon the treasures 
presented. Books are at hand to lend their assistance continu- 
ally. Not just the professional book of the teacher or the book 
of ready-made illustrations, but the common, every-day book is 
a mine worth the working in this respect. 

3. There are firms now advertising to furnish applicable 
clippings form the best current literature to illustrate any subject 
the purchaser may name. To get a full set of these clippings in 
that way would not be wise for the teacher, but a collection of 
clippings of descriptions, pictures, discussions, and pointed stories 
should be a large part of every teacher's tools. As these things 
increase the question arises as to the best means of preserving 
them. A very simple and inexpensive way for temporary filing 
of such material is the use of the cover of note paper tablets after 
the paper has been used from it. With a rubber band around the 



98 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

back an opportunity is furnished for inserting such clippings as 
are made from time to time, thus keeping them safely until 
needed or until they can be assorted and discarded or laid away for 
future use. Another means for keeping these collections is the 
manila envelope that may be readily made at very little expense 
and trouble. A series of these can be prepared, and with proper 
title affixed they may be made to answer quite well the purpose of 
a more expensive file. A series of pockets or envelopes fast- 
ened together, such as business men often use for classifying 
invoices and other papers, forms another convenient means of 
homing these literary waifs. More commodious and still not 
seriously expensive are such devices as the Chatauqua file now on 
the market. Any of these devices are preferable to the ordinary 
scrap-book, for the latter is cumbersome, necessitating the use of 
paste, is hard to keep in proper classification, and worst of all pre- 
vents the use of single articles without the burden of handling 
the whole collection. Also scraps preserved where the individual 
pieces are easily reached can be used to set an entire class at 
work on a theme when the book could be put into the hands of but 
few of the members of the class. In making use of such materials 
there is more than the immediate good to come from it in the 
inspiration that pupils may be led to feel for doing similar things 
when they see the help they are able to get from the teacher's 
clippings or from those that may be the property of the school 
through the united effort of teacher and pupil along this line. 
These collections should frequently answer the teacher's question, 
"Where can I find something to illustrate this lesson?" 

4. Many of the princes of trade have made themselves mas- 
ters of the markets by giving attention to the things their com- 
petitors neglected. Frequently it is the "by-products" that fur- 
nish the margin on which the fine home and the independent for- 



THE ILLUSTRATION. 99 

tune are founded. That person is most valuable to his community 
who goes ahead and helps himself without waiting for public 
officials to furnish the means for his employment. In like manner 
the teacher who provides illustrative matter of her own by care- 
fully watching for the unused articles that are lying about inviting 
a more intelligent employment than they now have is most valu- 
able to the school and community. Better libraries, more teach- 
ing apparatus, and warmer co-operation are in store for those 
who prove their faith in such things by the personal effort and 
sacrifice they are willing to make for the sake of securing them. 
Demanding the interest and help of school officials is by no means 
so effective as commanding it by the superior use made of the 
inferior or simple means that lie at hand soliciting recognition. 



L.ofC. 



100 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

IV. 

HAKING ILLUSTRATIVE HATTER FOR 
CLASS USE. 

51. — Wall Maps or Charts. 

1. There is a proper place for all the well-edited printed 
maps that the schools can afford. Likewise there is a large place 
for the outline or for the sectional map that should grow from the 
hand of the teacher. These may be made to present just what 
is needed to make the essential features of a series of lessons 
take hold forcibly upon the minds of pupils. Acting upon the 
principle of dividing and conquering they render it possible to fix 
what is needed most economically without the labor of hunting 
the points desired from a mass of matter that is adapted to some 
other school or locality only. When skill and time allow it, prob- 
ably the blackboard map or chart that grows directly under the 
eye of the pupil is the best means for the presentation of individ- 
ual features, but this is so rarely possible that other and more per- 
manent means must be devised. The ''homemade/' cheaply con- 
structed piece of apparatus is most promising of results that may 
readily be attained by the teacher of some ingenuity and moderate 
determination to overcome one's fears of failure in venturing into 
a field somewhat beyond past experiences. 

2. The material is composed of things that may be collect- 
ed with but little expense, as not all that is mentioned below is 
absolutely necessary before anything can be done. 

a. Paper. The ordinary wrapping paper that may be found 
in sheets or in the form of rolls in the common stores will answer 
all purposes very well. 



MAKING ILLUSTRATIVE MATTER FOR CLASS USE. 101 

b. Rubber marking pencil. This can be secured through 
any dealer in stationery supplies. These are useful in all kinds 
of ruling, lettering, tracing of boundaries, and kindred operations 
where ink is desired to give the work more permanency or a bet- 
ter finish. 

c. Common ink. Writing fluids that become blacker as ex- 
posure to light and air are increased are quite suitable, but any 
ink may be used with good results. 

d. Rubber marking type. This is one of the things that may 
be omitted from the ordinary teacher's outfit, but it is very conven- 
ient in making charts, lists of drill exercises in reading, arithmetic, 
language, and for various other purposes. 

e. Dry map colors. These are not expensive and almost 
essential to give distinctness and attractiveness to the things that 
are to be made to stand out prominently for the attention of the 
class. A satisfactory substitute may be prepared by scraping the 
darker colors of the ordinary colored crayon with a knife and thus 
securing a fine powder. A colored crayon, called lecturer's crayon, 
that is very fine for this work, is made by the American Crayon 
Co., at Sandusky, Ohio. It is not expensive, as each stick fur- 
nishes material for a large amount of work. Powder from either 
of these kinds of crayon can be made more smooth in its appli- 
cation if the color is dark enough to admit of the addition of a 
little French white to the dust. This coloring material is applied 
to the paper by putting a soft piece of cloth over the tip of a finger 
and then dipping it into the color and rubbing it on the space to 
be colored, gently at first, and then more heavily to fix it in the 
fiber of the paper. 

f. Colored crayon saturated in melted paraffine can be used 
for drawing, lettering, etc., on unsized cloth if desired. In prepar- 
ing the crayon all that is necessary is a few cents worth of paraffine 



102 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

wax melted in a tin cup or an empty can. The crayon is then 
dropped into the hot wax and when the air bubbles cease to rise 
it may be removed, and when cool it is ready for use. Work done 
with these colored crayons is as permanent as that done with ink. 

g. Rainbow 7 crayon or other colored pencils commonly on 
sale at drug stores are very helpful to have at hand for setting 
forth things by contrast on small maps and charts. 

3. — Means for enlarging. 

To transfer the features of a small outline drawing or the 
ordinary text-book map to paper for wall maps or charts requires 
more skill and time than the teacher has at command, commonly, 
if it must be done by means of the power to draw from sight with 
sufficient accuracy. Fortunately this need not be done as there 
are ways of reaching the desired end without the use of so much 
time and skill. 

a. The rubber string, tin pointer, and pencil. This is a device 
that can easily be secured by any teacher. Ordinary rubber 
cord will do with a small pointer made from tin or wire coiled 
about the cord so that it can be adjusted by slipping along the cord 
from place to place. To enlarge a drawing with this, keep the 
pointer near one end. Pin the end near which the pointer is 
located to the table. The outline to be enlarged is placed under 
the pointer. A pencil can be looped into the cord toward the free 
end at a proper distance to get the desired enlargement. By 
watching the pointer to see that it follows the drawing and allow- 
ing the pencil to trace on the larger sheet of paper, a very accu- 
rate, enlarged duplicate may be secured. Instead of the cord eight 
or ten of the ordinary rubber bands linked together with two or 
three at one end of a short piece of strong cord, and the remain- 
der of the bands at the other end, will succeed even better than 
the rubber cord. The inelastic string between the bands should 



MAKING ILLUSTRATIVE MATTER TOR CLASS USE. 103 

have the tracing pointer fitted to it loosely enough to be adjusted 
readily. By pinning the small drawing or map on the blackboard 
this same device can be used for enlarging with the crayon. A 
little practice, patience, and ingenuity will enable any one to make, 
a success of its use. 

b. The ordinary wood pantagraph can be secured from any 
supply house and it is a very handy piece of apparatus, but the 
device described above answers every purpose, is more easily 
manipulated, and has the advantage of being very inexpensive. 

c. Where a dark room is convenient or one that can readi- 
ly be darkened is at hand, a two inch double convex lens of about 
ten or twelve inches focal length can be made to render the best 
of service. A box wide enough to fit a window and open on the 
side toward the sunlight, and having a movable shelf in it that 
can be raised or lowered, is all that is needed for the foundation. 
The lens can be set into the top of the box just over the center 
of the movable shelf, and with a mirror at an angle of forty-five 
degrees over the lens the image can be caught on a screen in the 
darkened room. The picture or other matter to be enlarged is 
laid upon the movable shelf directly under the lens where the 
light from outside is falling upon the shelf, and when this shelf 
is adjusted to the right focus and the outside light excluded from 
the room a clear image that is easily traced is found on the paper 
on the screen. Desired size of image is secured by changing dis- 
tance of screen from lens. 

4. Making duplicates of enlarged copies. There are many 
occasions when one needs more than one copy of a map or draw- 
ing or chart, and to make new copies of exactly the same size may 
require extra skill and time if it is to be secured through the 
enlarging process just described. These may readily be made in 
the following manner: Lay sheet or sheets on which duplicates 



104 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

are desired on a cloth covered table with the copy over them and 
pin all together. Trace the copy with a pencil or with the top of 
a penholder that has a blunt point. After removing the copy the 
indentations on the duplicates may easily be traced in ink. Four 
or five copies at a time may be made in this way. If blackboard 
stencils are wanted, by running a tracing wheel over the reverse 
side of the indented sheet they may be made sufficiently perfect 
for common use. Perforations can be made with a common pin 
in a short time in sufficient number to serve as all the guide points 
that are usually needed for a blackboard stencil. 

5. Mounting maps and charts for hanging. The common 
shade stick that may be secured from any dealer in shades is the 
cheapest and most convenient means of preparing the map or 
chart for class use on the wall. With a thumb tack, first pressed 
through a narrow piece of wood split from the cover of a crayon 
box, the paper may be quickly fastened, and it will not be 
easily torn from its fastenings in this way. There is little trouble 
to remove the fasteners and insert more sheets as the collection 
grows. Instead of thumb tacks brass-headed tacks, known in fur- 
niture stores as upholstering nails, do very nicely and are 
cheaper. These may likewise be driven by pressure of the thumb 
without the need of a hammer. 

T>~. — Material for Seat Work. 

1. Making a number of copies for class use at the seats, 
of maps, examination questions, summaries of lessons, short 
selectiqns for committing, songs, is a helpful thing for teachers 
to do. 

a. The duplicate printer or hektograph. This very con- 
venient piece of apparatus can be purchased or it can be made, 
by a teacher with disposition to prepare for the best results, at 



MAKING ILLUSTRATIVE MATTER FOR CLASS USE. 105 

little expense and trouble. The following formula taken from a 
copy of The Teachers' Institute of some years ago has been tried 
and found to work well, if the materials are of proper quality: 

1. pt. glycerine. 

4 oz. gelatine. 

1 tin pan 8x12 — a shallow caramel pan with upturned edges 
does very well. Some use an ordinary slate, filling the frame 
level with the composition. Two slates may be prepared and 
hinged together with the faces having the composition turned 
inward to protect them when not in use. Soak the gelatine in a 
pint of cold water; then add the glycerine; put upon the stove, 
stirring that it may not burn. When it comes to a boil pour into 
the pan or slate to cool. Beware of air bubbles and you will have 
a smooth, hard, sticky surface. If it should happen that the com- 
position should be too sticky it is probable that the gelatine was 
more powerful than the glycerine, and by remelting and adding 
more of the latter this difficulty could be overcome, and in the 
same way the reverse process will remedy the fault if the com- 
position should prove too soft for successful use. The materials 
should cost from sixty to seventy cents, at most, and there is 
enough in the quantity given to fill about four ten by twelve slates. 
If this surface should become uneven or holes appear in it as is 
likely to be the case in some months of age, or if injury of any 
nature should spoil the surface, it may be made all right by hold- 
ing a hot fire shovel near the composition, but not touching it, 
until it melts and flows together again. 

To prepare to take the copies desired all that is necessary is 
hektograph ink and a common pen. The matter to be duplicated 
is put upon ordinary legal cap paper or other paper of equally 
good texture. When the writing is dry, without use of blotter, 
lay the copy on the prepared slate, or pan, written side down- 



106 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

ward, letting it remain from one-half to two minutes, according 
to the number of copies needed. Remove the copy and take the 
impressions wanted from the face of the hektograph on blank 
paper. Common printing paper answers very well for the copies 
taken. When copies begin to appear indistinct they may be made 
clearer by moistening the blank paper before applying it to the 
hektograph surface to get the impression. The ink will sink into 
the pad and the surface be ready for use again within ten to six- 
teen hours. When the composition becomes saturated with the 
ink and will no longer give a clear copy, it should be removed and 
a new supply of the material put into the slate or pan. This 
change does not have to be made frequently, however, even when 
the hektograph is in almost daily use. 

b. For all kinds of work of making copies readily and in 
great numbers the mimeograph is the most satisfactory instru- 
ment, but as this costs much more than most teachers can afford 
to put into such a piece of apparatus and as the supplies are more 
expensive than those for the hektograph, it is not so available as 
the apparatus first described. Any one using the mimeograph for 
making maps or even for ordinary autograph work, and desiring 
a number of copies, should put over the stencil, before fastening 
into the printing frame, a protecting sheet such as is furnished for 
the stencil for making type-written copies, or a piece of very thin 
cloth will do. One stencil will thus be made to furnish several 
hundred copies if they are desired. 

c. Another device for this duplicating of maps and pictures 
is the stencil that is so easily obtained. Theseare cheap and 
within the reach of any teacher. Some who have special talent 
as artists may not feel that this is the artist's way of illustrating, 
but the busy teacher and often equally busy pupil should have the 
advantage of any such device that can be secured if it will make 



MAKING ILLUSTRATIVE MATTER FOR CLASS USE. 107 

the work more effective. There is no virtue in mis-shapen scrawls 
called maps made by some pupils, and the time can be used to 
better advantage in furnishing a copy to be filled up with the 
essentials of the subject, giving his free hand efforts to small 
sections and to things that employ his artistic faculties to better 
advantage. 

53. — Relief Work, Solid Forms. 

1. The reproduction of ideas through doing with the hands 
is especially beneficial to all grades of pupils. There are some 
materials that can be had by any teacher without great opportunity 
for manual training in other respects. The reproduction of geo- 
graphical ideas gained from the field lessons, from study of the 
larger units from sources that lie beyond the realm of his own 
experiences, and from readings and descriptions in books and 
magazines, is one of the best of educational aids to bring the 
learner into life-like touch with his school occupations. Building 
ideas of the territory over which historical events took place and 
a relief picture of scenes described in the reading lesson, are not 
only interesting to almost any grade of pupils, but very valuable. 
An abundance of such work may be done without loss of time, but 
in fact it is rather a time-saver, as the ideas become so much more 
fully fixed that they do not escape and need so frequent refreshing 
as those left without this process of reproduction. The outline 
of a grand division or some portion of land being drawn upon 
slates with a colored pencil, modeling material may be given 
pupils to have them express their ideas of relief and drainage by 
having them build up the forms on the slate. Threads or strings 
may be laid in for rivers. Some of this work is done with maps 
and other helps before the pupil to enable him to form correct 
notions of the region he is trying to represent. Ultimately he 



108 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

should reproduce his own ideas of the region without any thing 
present to suggest or guide him excepting his own mental picture 
of what he is trying to shape. Correctness of mental grasp, neat- 
ness, and all other qualities of right thinking are even more 
readily expressed in this way than by written work. It is one 
way of giving an examination that avoids the outgrown ten-ques- 
tion system. As faithfulness of representation and not artistic 
work is the basis of judgment of the pupil's ideas, the plan is 
eminently fair to all. 

Solids of various shapes and sizes may be made in this way 
and kept ready for use. A small globe made from some material 
used for this purpose is always convenient for use in the geog- 
raphy class in teaching change of seasons, longitude, latitude and 
various other points that should be presented through the senses 
rather than abstractly at first. 

2. There are several kinds of material that may be used for 
this purpose. Potter's clay is one that is convenient and has many 
things in its favor. It can be secured through the supply houses 
and often it is to be had locally at a very much lower rate. Putty 
is always available if it is desired to use it. For some kinds of per- 
manent relief work it is very good. Another kind of material 
is made from the best quality of whiting mixed with one-third 
its own amount by measure of wheat flour. By the addition o. r 
cold water this may be made into a paste that will make satisfac- 
tory relief forms. Equal parts of coarse salt and flour mixed into 
a stiff dough can be used with entire success by any one without 
the advantage of previous experience. But best and cheapest of all 
is the material that may be made from the ordinary newspaper, 
and which when made is commonly known as paper pulp. To 
prepare this all that is necessary is some old papers, a pan with 
water, a little patience and some work. The papers are prepared 



MAKING ILLUSTRATIVE MATTER FOR CLASS USE. 109 

by tearing into leaves about the size of the pages of an ordinary 
text book. These small sheets should then be laid singly into the 
pan of water, seeing that each becomes thoroughly wet as it is 
placed. After soaking for six to ten hours, or even less, the pulp 
may be made by rubbing the sheets of paper between the hands 
until it is perfectly free from lumps or evidences of small bits of 
paper. This can be preserved indefinitely by keeping it moist, or 
by allowing it to dry and then soaking it again in water. Work 
that has been done and has served its purpose so that it need not 
be preserved longer can be soaked and used for new forms. 
Slates are convenient to use in all pulp work, as they are not 
injured by water. Also maps and the like when dry may be lifted 
off and mounted on blue card board, leaving the slate for repeated 
use. The other materials should be used on boards or straw 
board where the work can be left, as it adheres very firmly. Aside 
from the fact that it is so readily removed the pulp is more desir- 
able in the hands of pupils, because it is perfectly dean, and so 
easily managed, as it never sticks to the fingers. This paper 
material or the flour and salt mixture either may be colored to 
show various features as the teacher may desire, by use of ink or 
cheap dyes, or the paraffined colored crayon. It may be well to 
remark here that colors used in this way should have purpose in 
making essential features stand out distinctly, rather than that 
they should be used for show alone. 

For modeling in a less permanent form or on a larger scale 
the common sand table is of great use. In still larger units made 
readily on the school room floor, such as models of forts, battle 
fields, river basins, cities and similar areas, sawdust is very satis- 
factory material, being clean, light and easily removed. 



HO THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

54. — The Empty Crayon Box. 

As this stands it has value in illustrating the mechanics of 
the making of a box. It may well represent the lumber of larger 
length and greater thickness used in other structures. The groove 
in which the cover slides, the mortises and the tenons that hold 
the ends and sides together, and sometimes the illustration of the 
dove-tail joints, all combine to make it worth preserving. By cal- 
culating its cubical contents it may become a convenient school 
room measuring unit. By cutting off an end at the proper place 
the dry quart, liquid quart, the liter may be readily made. A sharp 
knife and a few of the furniture nails previously mentioned are all 
the tools needed for this. Ends and sides holding as they do by 
mortise and tenon may be set to show various angles. Drawing 
models can thus be secured to give some variation. All parts of 
the box furnish materials for models of surface forms, rectangles, 
triangles, etc. Decimeter rulers, six inch measures may be in the 
hands of pupils and used enough to fix them in mind with no 
trouble or expense. The physiology class can get a good idea 
of the real capacity of the lungs by means of the calculation of 
cubic space in the crayon box and making comparisons with the 
statement of the text as to the air space in the lungs. Recently 
a good model to represent a draw bridge mentioned in a reading 
lesson was quickly made by a teacher, from a side and an end as 
they are jointed. These are suggestions; others will find more 
ways yet to make this box supply illustrative material. A model 
of a canal lock has also been made from material from the crayon 
box and some leather hinges. 

The ordinary shade stick may furnish some help to the ex- 
ercises of the school. A yard stick, showing feet and inches is at 
the command of any teacher. The meter with all its divisions 
can be had for the slightest effort. Nearly all arithmetics have the 



MAKING ILLUSTRATIVE MATTER FOR CLASS USE. HI 

decimeter measure shown. A piece of paper cut the length of this 
measure and laid ten times on the shade stick gives the meter, 
this can have the decimeters, centimeters and millimeters shown. 
Pupils may and should thus be as familiar with the metric system 
as with the common inconvenient set of denominate number 
tables, and thus the advantage of the metric system would im- 
press itself and the superstition as to difficulty of its use would 
gradually die away. If our money system is a success, then the 
decimal system of denominate numbers would be equally suc- 
cessful. 

The progessive teacher is continually making use of common 
materials and finds her funds never fully exhausted. Think and 
try. 



112 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

TEACHING IN INTERMEDIATE 
AND GRAMMAR GRADES. 



READING. 

In no other subject does the preparation for the work and the 
work itself assume a more distinct difference of character than in 
that of teaching oral reading. Far too much of the work that is 
commonly done as teaching reading is only preparing for the 
reading exercise. The teacher's study of the problem, then, 
divides itself, in the main, into two phases, viz. : the study of the 
accessories and mechanics of the process, and the assignment and 
conducting of the reading lesson proper. 

55. — Preparation and Accessories. 

1. Mastery of words. This is essential before the pupil 
can read at all, and yet it is not distinctly a reading class exercise 
more than it should be an operation in the study of other subjects. 
The vocabulary of the pupil must grow from the lists of words 
coming into it through the history, geography, arithmetic, lan- 
guage and other occupations of the school as well as through the 
reading exercises. Words are the mere signs of ideas, and ideas 
are to be secured from these subjects as clearly as from the read- 
ing book. In fact the way the teaching is generally done in some 
schools the thought of the pupil is that he is accountable for ideas 
in the other subjects and simply for bookholding, standing erect, 



READING. H3 

managing his breathing, careful articulation, accurate pronuncia- 
tion of words in the reading period. The teacher of any subject 
who allows the pupil to pass over a significant word without get- 
ting into his mind the appropriate idea symbolized by the word, is 
guilty of spoiling his reading as truly as the reading teacher does 
when she allows the mechanical part of the exercise to monopolize 
the time and neglects the thought side of the process. The 
teacher when an instructor in history, geography, arithmetic and 
the like, can not be careless of the thought and the necessary 
training in seeing what is under the words if she expects to have 
good readers in her class. Frequently it is said that the reason 
the pupil fails in arithmetic, grammar, and his work in college, is 
because he can not read. It is equally fair to cast back this state- 
ment and say that the reason he does not read well is because 
he uses the terms of these branches without an adequate idea of 
their meaning, and thus acquires habits of mind that induce him to 
look upon all exercises in a careless and indifferent way. 

The mastery of a word signifies a recognition of its form as 
that form shows in itself the power of the letters composing the 
word, and thus finding its proper pronunciation. This form mas- 
tery while very essential has little more to do with reading aloud 
than it should have to do with other topics. The content of the 
word must likewise be grasped if it is to be rendered in appro- 
priate tones. Its power in the particular place that it may be 
occupying has to be recognized. Why that word instead of some 
other word almost synonymous? In like manner the mastery of 
a word means an advance in the power of the child to form cor- 
rect images of things suggested but not present to the senses. 

There are a number of things to engage the attention of the 
teacher in his attempt to lead the pupils to acquire new words. 
In the first place the learner must feel his need of knowing the 



114 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

word. This can be impressed upon him simply by his realizing 
that he must have the thought of the sentence and through his 
effort to master that he finds he must know each word in its full- 
est meaning. This leads to the suggestion that the pupil must 
learn that many of his words are most readily understood through 
the context. He finds that he cannot get the full sense of what he 
reads without understanding some particular word, and thus sets 
about the mastery of that word. In much the same way he real- 
izes that the meaning must be what he can reasonably surmise 
it to be with quite a satisfactory degree of accuracy through the 
other words of the sentence which he already understands. This 
sets up a process of reasoning that is valuable in itself, and in every 
way helpful to his progress as a reader. Teach the pupil to try the 
context to get the meaning, and then confirm himself by other means 
when in doubt. 

2. Sounds and syllables. Early in his attempts at reading the 
child should come to recognize the fact that most of the letters in 
the words stand for definite sounds. These letters should be sym- 
bols to his eye to suggest the sounds that appear in the spoken 
word. Instead of dropping these sounds or the tendency to 
attack the new word by means of them he should be more ready 
as the years go by to make use of the principle of phonetic spell- 
ing or of "sounding" for correct pronunciation. Very good 
results can be attained without a cumbersome list of rules by con- 
stantly applying the tests that are at hand, and thus gradually ex- 
tending them until all the sounds represented by single letters and 
the common combinations are at the command of the learner to 
enable him to overcome his new enemy in word lists as he meets 
him. The diacritical marks of the dictionary are an essential ele- 
ment in mastering sounds and learning the correct pronunciation 
of words. However, the teacher should be aware of the tempta- 



READING. 115 

tion to suggest, "look it up," every time a difficulty is met and 
thus console herself with the thought that she is teaching the use 
of these marks. Much teaching of marks and words through the 
use of the board and the voice is necessary both on the score of 
the attainment of proper results and the economy of valuable 
time. When enough of this is done a reasonable amount of the 
"look-it-up" exercise is valuable and proper. Closely allied to this 
process is one of syllabication. In his efforts to make himself 
strong in the command of words the pupil should be led to see 
syllables readily and accurately. Much time now wasted could 
be saved by more careful use of the power to recognize quickly 
the small units making up the larger word of several syllables. 
Sometimes the word can easily be seen to be made up of two very 
common and simple words, each of which the child could pro- 
nounce and understand without difficulty if his attention were di- 
rected in the right channel. Have pupils master sounds and con- 
stantly use them in trying to overcome new zvords. In like manner 
make all possible use of the process of dividing into syllables. 

3. Explanation, etymology. There are several other ele- 
ments in this process of word mastery that are very essential. 
Explanation through use of synonym or antonym is frequently 
the best method available. Illustration by means of a drawing, an 
object, or an action is another way of making the meaning of the 
word clear. Using the word in a sentence prepared with other 
words, all of which have a clear meaning to the pupil, will enforce 
its power. The etymology sometimes is the best road to the de- 
sired end. Finally, definition and description step in to confirm 
and make sure all other attempts. All definitions should be tried, 
however, by the pupil by substituting the definition in the con- 
text of the word itself. No class of pupils is too far advanced 
to make use of all these devices for mastering new zvords. 



116 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

."><». — Thought and Mechanics of Expression. 

Thought is at the foundation of all sensible reading. It is by 
no means a waste of time to study much and read orally very lit- 
tle, at times, in the recitation period. Some teachers think that 
nothing is being done in the line of teaching reading unless there 
is a pupil standing and producing sounds more or less intelligible 
or blundering painfully along in his attempts to name the words 
down to the next period. The lingering torture and misery in- 
flicted thus upon an intelligent child's mind as he listens is enough 
to make him feel, as he frequently does, that the reading period is 
the climax of all the dull exercises of an ofttimes very dull school.' 
Put life and vim into the reading and the reflex action will bring 
rich rewards in the other subjects. 

Pronunciation, articulation, time, force, quality of voice, 
pitch, position of the pupil, book holding and kindred matters 
should receive the most careful attention, but they should be given 
attention as a part of the study and preparation for the oral read- 
ing, and not be allowed to intrude into the oral exercise to such a 
degree as to take the attention of the pupil from the expression of 
the thought. He ought not to try to render the thought until he 
has the tools for doing the work well at his command. One para- 
graph read thoughtfully after the questions of pronunciation, time, 
pitch and like accessories have been determined by a study leading 
to a sensible understanding of the thought, is worth a dozen drawl- 
ing prosy exercises requiring frequent aid from the teacher in 
naming the words. In such work the time is not regarded, and 
cannot be, and neither can any of the others of the elements of 
expression. Drills for improving the pupils in articulation, in 
managing the breath, in standing erect and in proper position for 
good expression should be given, but it should be distinctly under- 
stood that these are but the aids to readme- and should be taken as 



READING. 117 

such, and generally at times entirely separated from the real 
attempts at rendering the thought of one of the good selections 
given to be read. The understanding of the thought should take 
care of the time, pitch, quality and force. It is a profitable exer- 
cise to turn back frequently and have a lesson re-read without 
much discussion of the thought. This will help the teacher to 
determine how much of the reading is mechanical and how much 
based upon the child's comprehension of the thought. There 
should be a reasonable amount of entirely new matter furnished 
quite frequently for drills in sight reading. All of these are aids 
in acquiring the habit of careful reading by the pupil. 

57. — Geographical and Historical Settings. 

Another of the legitimate accessories of the reading lesson 
is the study of the geographical setting of the piece. It may have 
a local coloring due to season, place, or occupations that should 
be mastered. Historical allusions are appropriate matter to en- 
gage the powers of the child in his effort to see into the mysteries 
of the thing in hand. Some study of the author should be made, 
when possible, in so far as this will tnrow light upon the selection, 
or add interest to the recitation or study period. The work here 
mentioned is not for the accumulation of geographical facts, 
learning of historical events, or an acquaintance with men and 
women excepting as these side lights may help in the reading 
exercises of the school. 

58. — Questioning Before Reading. 

Aside from the preparation that it has been suggested in 
former pages that the pupil should be required to make, there 
should be sharp and lively questioning of entire class before the 
attempt at reading. Generally this should be done with the book 
open and the questions made so that the answer can be read 



118 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

from the book, thus answering in the words of the author rather 
than in the pupil's own words. Much of the talking done by pupils 
in response to the stereotyped question, "Who can tell us what the 
lesson is about?" is of the most useless and senseless kind. The 
questions should aim at bringing out the thought in the language 
of the author, and in this way as a preparation for the reading of 
entire paragraphs much oral reading of a profitable kind is done, 
and yet it should not be looked upon as reading, but simply one 
of the last attempts at getting the thought firmly fixed in the mind 
so that later it may be fully expressed in the reading. Good, 
sensible questioning, free from the mincing question, should be 
done before the reading. What is the value to come from having 
pupils read and then question for the thought that is the only 
thing that can insure good reading? When the reader shows by 
his reading that he does not have the thought after all effort has 
been made to have him get it, there then may be something done 
to clear it up and improve his- reading by questioning him and the 
other members of the class, and he or another may then re-read, 
but simply questioning without definite purpose in trying to have 
that improve the reading is of little use at this late stage in the 
exercise. Likewise, to ask the pupil who has failed to read again 
without anything to guide him in seeing where he made his mis- 
take, is a waste of time, and will quite likely fix the very fault more 
firmly, while the intention was to remove it. Many questions 
should be given in such a manner that the pupil cannot answer 
without giving the emphasis to the proper word if he answers the 
question intelligently. The time for severe criticism for peculiar- 
ities of speech, inaccuracies of pronunciation and similar faults has 
pacsed before the real exercise of reading begins. Everything 
should be so managed as to relieve the reader of all traces of self 
consciousness, thus leaving him free to give himself entirely to the 



READING. 119 

rendering of the thought, not allowing himself to be hindered 
by thoughts of the mistakes he may be making. Very many of 
the criticisms made by pupils on the reading of their fellows should 
be prevented by not allowing the mistakes to occur by carefully 
finding out beforehand what is likely to be done by the one 
reading, and removing the difficulty before he reads. Some of the 
remaining mistakes may wisely be ignored. Thus there will be 
few adverse criticisms to be given by pupils. Rather than many 
such criticisms the minds of members of the class should be 
directed to the excellencies of the reading. 

59. — Recognition of Discord. 

Finally, the teacher of reading should have much of the 
quality of a good band leader who knows by his ear when every- 
thing is going right, and who by instinct guides in time and ex- 
pression by the attitude and expression of his body, hands and 
face. It should be as evident to the teacher when incorrect time, 
improper pitch, poor quality of voice are manifested by the reader 
as it is to the orchestra leader when the first violin is "out of tune." 
The discords in the expression of pure, noble thought in a literary 
way are just as prevalent as they are in the musical world, and the 
teacher should recognize this and prevent the lowering of taste 
by seeing that the rendering is worthy of the thought. 

GO. — Purpose and Meaning of Whole Selection. 

Next to his effort to master words, not in importance neces- 
sarily, for these processes can not be separated into primary and 
secondary activities, is the one of getting the meaning of the entire 
selection and of each essential part. This leads to the question of 
assignment of the lesson. In all subjects this part of the teacher's 
duties is far more important than the time and skill in making it 
would suggest to the ordinary observer. It is the seed time of the 



120 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

study period and the recitation combined. To assign a reading 
lesson so that it will require and secure study from the pupil is 
no small undertaking. Also to so lay out the work that the dullest 
may find something of profit for his efforts and the brightest may 
employ all his time and energy to advantage, requires forethought 
and good judgment. A leading reason for the fruitless -reading 
lesson is the poor assignment. 

Pupils should feel as much responsibility for definite results 
in the study of a reading lesson as in the study of one in arithmetic, 
history, geography, or language. If the selection to be read is not 
too long to be read in the study period by the class, the entire 
piece should be given for reading first as a whole. This should 
enable the child to see the purpose of the author in writing the 
article as it may seem to him with his state of mind that the author 
intended it. It may be best to use other terms rather than to talk 
to the class of the author's purpose, or of the lesson that he intends 
us to get, especially if by that the pupil feels that he is to deter- 
mine the moral of the piece. One of the following questions may 
be suggestive as to the way to propose to the child what he is to 
do. Read the entire selection and determine what the author says 
to you in it. What do you think the entire piece means when you 
have read it all very thoughtfully? Why did the author write it? 
What does it seem to you the writer has said in the whole poem? 
Get what you think the author was trying to teach when he wrote 
this. What to you is the writer's thought? The pupil should be 
as accountable for his answer to this problem set for him in the 
reading book as for one in arithmetic. He should be expected to 
bring his results to the recitation carefully worked out in definite 
language and written on slate or tablet just as he would bring in 
the fruits of his investigations and study in other subjects. The 
results need not all agree, in fact they probably should not agree, 



READING. 121 

as the grasp of the meaning of any standard selection is a relative 
matter rather than an absolute one. Each pupil is to reach some 
conclusion for himself, and to record it to bring to the class with 
him. To fail to be ready with this is as much a failure as that of 
any other lesson. A sensible discussion of the results obtained 
by the study of the various members should lead to some reason- 
able conclusion that may be the common opinion of class and 
teacher, rather than a decision that should be absolutely final. 
There is no other place where the judgment of the pupil may be 
more properly exercised than in his interpretations of the literature 
that he reads in his school reading book. He should be led in 
forming his opinions, but not forced into the position taken by 
teacher or other members of the class. So long as he can give a 
sensible reason for the position he takes he has a right to his way 
of thinking, and even at times his judgment should be respected 
when he can give no more plausible argument than, "I believe 
that is so because it seems so to me." Look for whole units and 
have pupils study them as such and bring in the results thus obtained. 

61.— Study of Parts. 

When the meaning of the selection as a whole has been de- 
termined by the pupil he should in a similar way attack the parts. 
Sometimes these parts may be found to be several stanzas or 
paragraphs that seem to have a relation to the same central 
thought. If this is seen to be true the attention of the class should 
be called to it at the time of the assignment, and appropriate sug- 
gestions made for its study somewhat after the manner of the 
study of the entire piece. In like manner the smaller units of para- 
graph or stanzas should be examined to determine what the force 
or meaning of each may be in the light of the end the pupil has 
selected as the thought of the author in writing the extract under 



122 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

consideration. It can readily be seen that this process can be 
carried out to the meaning of sentences and to the important 
words themselves. Such study will require of the pupil thoughtful 
attention to everything within the selection itself that can be of 
service in making its meaning stand out fully. The class should 
come to the recitation with these points settled in their own minds 
and some means of recording the results of their study should be 
used. Sometimes the paper of the pupil may contain a topical 
outline of the ideas he finds in the lesson arranged in their proper 
order. In some lessons drawings may be made to suggest the 
thought in parts of the selection. At the assignment a series of 
questions may be proposed that will require careful study and the 
answers required to be given in writing. A written statement of 
the thing, or things, and persons that have part in making the 
piece and an estimate of what each has to do in giving meaning to 
the lesson, may sometimes bring the best results from the effort 
of pupils in study. There should be constant effort on the part of 
the teacher to have members of the class picture vividly in the 
mind and state accurately the pictures and the part of the lesson 
furnishing each picture. These are given as suggestions for vary- 
ing the manner of having the preparation shown, but the prepa- 
ration should be made and shown in some way. The extent to 
which the study of any selection is to be pushed depends entirely 
upon the ability of the class, but every grade should feel that 
thought is the essential thing in every reading lesson. Have the 
pupil seek a sensible end as the object at which the author was aiming 
in Ids writing. See that they then determine the meaning and 
pictures of each part as contributing to that end. 

G2.— The Teacher's Qualification. 

1. Incidental. It is said of a woman teaching in a New 
England female seminary about seventy-five years ago, that she 



READING. 123 

could so teach arithmetic, grammar and similar common branches, 
that a girl might obtain from them a mental power far above that 
which her brother received in the Latin and Greek studies at 
college. The writer of the article from which the information in 
the previous sentence is obtained gives the following sentence 
near the close. "The reader of this article will come to the con- 
clusion that superior teaching can only be performed by one who 
takes life seriously." "Beware," she says, "of allowing a young 
girl to value herself according to her facility in reciting." The 
view of the teacher given here and the one that may be taken of 
the pupil will serve to help one to get a clearer . vision of the 
position of the teacher of reading. 

There is too much of a tendency in the common view of the 
teaching of this subject to look at it almost entirely from the stand- 
point of the activity of the pupil in the recitation period. Some- 
thing is expected of him in the way of preparation, it is true, but it 
is so indefinite and has so little relation to the life giving power 
of the extract that is under consideration that he is satisfied to 
make very little effort in studying his reading lesson, and his 
teacher is almost powerless in her attempts to induce him to 
study. The preparation of the teacher is a primary essential in the 
attainment of the desired end in this subject as in all others. This 
preparation is both remote and immediate. First she should be 
a person that looks upon the question of the study and teaching of 
the literary values of the standard works given, intelligently and 
seriously. To think of being able to teach reading without hard 
and persistent study is to be willing to give chaff for grain, and to 
do one's work very superficially and with little life giving inspira- 
tion to the class. One feature of the remote preparation is for the 
teacher to be constantly improving her tastes by thoughtful read- 
ing of simple but pure productions of the masters. This need not 



124 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

be the critical, lexicon, reader's hand-book, and encyclopedia study 
for the exhaustion of the details of the readings, but rather that 
phase of study that looks for pictures, for effects upon the senti- 
ments, for inspiration, for beauty, and for high ideals. The person 
who has no desire or inclination to make the use of standard 
literature here suggested ought to spare the children by finding 
some other occupation, and not try to become a teacher. Blessed, 
indeed, are the pupils of that teacher who finds so much of beauty 
and of interest in the extracts that are necessarily so abridged in 
the readers that she can not be contented until she has seen them 
in their setting in the complete work. Preparation for teaching 
reading is not made in a day, it is a thing of constant, persistent 
effort, not so much with the definite understanding of just the 
place that the accumulation of each day will be applied, but with 
the feeling that sometime, somewhere, the efforts of the present 
will bear fruit. How can a pupil go from his school days with a 
love for the best in literature and a taste for it if his teacher has not 
been able to impress him with the fulness and power of this same 
literature by her completeness and inspiration drawn from the 
same source? As the teacher so the pupil. Each day should 
make some contribution to the teacher's stock in trade in the line 
of mastery of good literature. Always reading with all the facul- 
ties awake and seeing vividly in all study is another of the remote 
means of becoming a better teacher of reading. 

2. Immediate. The immediate preparation of the teacher 
for the reading lesson is in some respects very similar «to that 
which the pupil is expected to make. This should not be such a 
very trying matter if the teacher is as well qualified as the remote 
preparation assumes. There will be words, allusions, figures to 
look up, geographical and historical points to settle, something of 
the author to be known, and a reasonable determination of the 



READING. 125 

proper interpretation of the selection to be made. When these 
are made as complete as it is possible for the teacher to make 
them for herself with the time at command, she should be far 
enough in advance of the thought of the class to feel well filled 
with matter and inspiration to lead the class intelligently. She 
must still realize that it is she that is exhausted and not the ex- 
tract she has been studying. This should lead to a realization 
that the pupil will have to stop short of the full grasp, and it will 
be his great good fortune if he can be led to see that he has not 
touched the lowest depth of meaning before his interest is allowed 
to flag, for then he will leave his work with a feeling that he 
wants sometime to re-read that piece and he will be delighted 
when he reads it again to find that it contains new beauties for him. 
The most perplexing thing in the immediate preparation is 
the planning of the work so as to have the class get from it what 
the nature of the piece ,to be read would seem, to suggest that they 
should get. This is in great measure one of devices, such as 
questions, objects, maps, drawings, pictures, and the like, that 
will assist in making the thought clear to the class. It is not 
enough to tell the pupil to look up these matters for himself. 
His teacher must lead the way and. inspire by example as well as 
urge by precept. The end is to be seen that the selection should 
accomplish for the pupil and everything made to bend to bring 
about that end. Several things may be enumerated to be kept 
in mind. The piece should leave him with a little more desire 
to read something of the same kind than he had when he began it. 
His stock of general facts should probably have grown. His 
power to picture to the mind and his progress toward recognition 
of abstract truth should have developed somewhat. There should 
probably be a silent, subtle influence touching him that is too 
imperceptible to make him feel that it is the moral of the lesson 



126 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

made visible, and yet such that it touches his motives and uncon- 
sciously tends to shape his acts. These are enough to try the skill 
of any teacher. All things considered, a taste for good literature 
is probably well in the lead of all blessings to be conferred upon 
the child by his public school experience. How can that be 
implanted when the noblest and best in literature is made the 
crippled hobby of a mere word-pronouncing, prosy, time-serving 
teacher? It would almost seem sometimes that less of injury 
would come to the mind or taste of the pupil in the use of selec- 
tions of less literary merit, since the exercise so often is such as to 
disgust or at least fail to arouse the pupil's interest in the tone of 
the selection, and thereby breeds in him a certain disrespect for 
what is lofty and purest. The road to better reading work lies 
through the realm of the teacher's preparation, taste, and fancies 
even more fully than in the pupil's study and the mechanical hum- 
drum reading exercise. Pictures with their purpose must first be 
formed in the mind of the teacher before they can take shape in 
the mind of the pupils. Truth is the only thing that has true 
developing power in the mind, and its mastery in literature is 
even more essential to right sentiments and motives in life than 
it would generally seem to be in science and mathematics. 

Aside from their own untiring efforts, teachers of reading 
may find much help in the following books. McMurry's Special 
Method in Reading; Hinsdale's Teaching the Language Arts; 
Clark's, How to Teach Reading in the Public Schools; and 
Arnold's Reading: How to Teach it. 



SPELLING. 127 

II. 

SPELLING. 

G3.— Why Mistakes Occur. 

There are two reasons why pupils and people in general do 
things wrong. These are ignorance and carelessness. Faults in 
spelling are all due to these two causes. It is quite probable that 
the mistakes found in any ordinary work of the school may be 
charged about equally to each of these causes. Indifference and 
want of confidence are hindrances. There is a marked degree 
of indifference as to the necessity of good spelling in the minds 
of pupils in general. Some think that poor spelling, like poor 
penmanship, is a mark of genius. It may be allowable for the 
real genius to violate all law and custom in this subject, but the 
common man must know how to spell correctly, and the common 
school must teach him. Indifference should be met with earnest 
enthusiasm. Want of confidence must be overcome by making 
the question of spelling correctly so easy that all may catch a ray 
of hope and thus be inspired to put forth increased effort. These 
are not insurmountable difficulties and should be met with a 
strong purpose and a firm determination on the part of the 
teacher. 

64.— Teaching, Not Testing, Should Prevail. 

At too early stages in the pupil's experience the spelling ex- 
ercises are made of the nature of tests almost entirely, and not 
enough is done to avoid the opportunity for making mistakes. 
It costs more to correct one mistake than it does to teach two 
facts correctly. There is a time for reasonable test in the spell- 
ing exercises as in all other subjects, but far more of the pupil's 



128 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

time should be given to doing the right thing than in attempting 
what is beyond him, and thus fixing his mistakes through fatal 
blundering. Very frequently the tests put upon the child in this 
branch are such that he readily excuses himself for his mistakes, 
and therefore makes no definite effort to rise above the difficulty. 
Correct spelling is in a marked degree a question of proper habit. 
Since correcting errors is much harder than preventing them, in 
most cases, it should be the purpose in all ways possible to form 
the right habits from the start. 

65. — Sound Not a Correct Guide. 

An examination of the papers written by little people when 
left to their own direction, shows a distinct tendency toward 
phonetic spelling, which is a fatal thing in our present lawless 
system. The eye and not the ear must be the guide very nearly 
all the time at first, and never should it be fully adandoned. Many 
things that children even well along in the grades give orally 
might well be written on the board by the teacher to be accurately 
copied by the pupil afterward, rather, than to have him try to 
write it for himself and misspell numerous words. Much poor 
spelling is due to an undue pressure for originality in the language 
of the child. His language from the first has been largely a matter 
of imitation, and if he has once helped in giving the thought of the 
class orally, the correct writing of it should be made very easy and 
practically assured. 

06. — Teaching Through Copying, Testing by Dictation. 

Very much of the pupil's effort in the preparation of his spell- 
ing lesson should consist of absolutely accurate copying of the 
lesson from the book to be handed to his teacher at the opening 
of the recitation period. If one is inclined to think this too easy 



SPELLING. 129 

let him try it for himself and he will find a test of his powers that 
he little expects. In the recitation period let the child copy words, 
sentences and paragraphs after the teacher as they are written on 
the board. Some of this may be from the lesson that he has 
studied. Much of it should be of similar grade, but new. All of 
it should be understood before it is copied. Any mistakes made 
here, and there will be many, are due to carelessness and should 
be made right at once and the habit of care and accuracy formed 
at the same time. The term dictation here is used in the broad 
sense of the "giving out" of words or sentences for the pupil to 
catch by ear and then spell from memory or habit. These dicta- 
tion exercises should generally be t,aken from things that have 
been accurately copied a number of times. Some easy new mat- 
ter should be given often enough for the teacher to discover where 
the greatest weaknesses lie in order that these weak places may be 
made strong. In dictating words or sentences the teacher should 
give all that the pupil is required to carry in mind with the book 
closed. When lists of words are dictated, usually two or more 
may be given at once, thus saving time and cultivating the habit 
of giving close attention and application. The class should listen 
attentively until the teacher ceases speaking^ and then write. 
While they write the teacher may look at the book for the next 
matter to dictate. The teacher should speak in quiet but distinct 
tones and try to have all catch the dictation from one effort. 

Correcting the papers after the dictation exercise has been 
given is a very essential part of the work. The devices that may 
be used in getting this done are numerous and teachers should 
always be on the lookout for variations. It should be remembered 
that the corrections should, in the main, be made by the pupil 
himself and on his own paper. They may correct from the book. 
Before the spelling lesson was dictated it may have been written 



130 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

on the board and a map drawn down over it. After the pupils have 
written the lesson the map may be raised and the corrections be 
made from the copy on the board. Pupils may spell from their 
papers. The teacher may spell from the book. Sometimes the 
words may be written in column from dictation and the list written 
again in parallel column as the teacher spells for the class. Pupils 
should indicate mistakes and generally the papers should be taken 
up for inspection by the teacher. If the indications made by the 
children in correcting the papers are as distinct as they should be 
it will be little trouble to go over the papers afterward. 

G7. — Rules, Drills and Inspirational Devices. 

When pupils are far enough along to have a vocabulary of 
their own that will furnish examples by which they can be led 
inductively to discover some of the more simple rules that are 
helpful in mature life, these rules might be or should be taught. 
The words that have given especial difficulty should be arranged 
for reviews by copying and by a few minutes concentrated atten- 
tion upon a few at a time on the board to be written from memory 
after they are erased. Calling attention to special difficulties in 
certain words is a valuable practice. Class and teacher pronounc- 
ing carefully, sometimes in concert but more frequently in turns, 
all the words of the lesson at the time of assignment is a profitable 
drill. Generally the meaning of the words of the spelling exercise 
should be very clear to the pupils. Writing little stories with 
certain words to appear in them will not only help to get the words 
used, but will help in the pupil's language. The words may well 
be put on the board so there shall be no mistake in the spelling 
in such an exercise unless the teacher is quite sure the class can 
all spell them correctly. Oral spelling has a place as a drill and 
an inspirational device. Some time should be given to it. At 



SPELLING. 131 

times the class may slowly name the letters of a word while the 
teacher or a pupil writes it on the board. It is well to let them 
name the letters in concert slowly, so that they may be impressed 
upon the sense of hearing while all write the word on paper. This 
can be done quietly as shouting is in no means a necessary 
attribute of concert drill. Words pronounced alike, but spelled 
differently, should not be given, if given at all, in pairs, until late 
in the course when the pupil is so well grounded in the meaning 
and spelling of each that their relation can in no sense confuse 
him. This'is a dangerous device for arousing interest and should 
be used cautiously. Word building may sometimes add interest 
to a spelling exercise. The old fashioned "spelling match" had 
its benefits that should not be entirely ignored. In all these exer- 
cises, however, the aim should be to have incorrect spelling fall 
upon the eye or ear of the pupil just as little as possible. Finally, 
make it as easy for pupils as possible, and then expect proper 
results when conditions are made favorable for them. 



132 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

III. 

GEOGRAPHY. 

68. — Improvement in Text-Book and Teacher's View. 

In his report on the correlation of studies the Commissioner 
of Education for the United States, Wm. T. Harris, places Geog- 
raphy as "second only to Arithmetic among the branches that 
correlate man to nature." Such recognition along with the con- 
stant growth that is evident in the study of the subject in the best 
of universities and colleges gives good excuse for the public 
school teacher to make the most careful preparation for the pre- 
sentation of the foundation principles in the elementary schools. 
Within the last few years there has been such an improvement 
in the text books and other devices used in the teaching of this 
branch that there is scarcely any excuse now for poor work and 
uninterested classes in this subject. In fact, the problem is at 
present becoming somewhat serious as to the best things to select 
and teach and what of all that is being loaded upon the teacher of 
geography should be thrown off as interesting but dispensible 
matter. However, from the great fund of sensible material and 
the excellent helps at the command of the common teacher there 
is reason to rejoice in the hope that something better is in store 
for the children in coming days than has been the good fortune of 
many in the days gone by. 

Those teachers in any line who see in the branches they are 
teaching the fundamental relations that the matter under consid- 
eration bears to the real life of the pupil and the purposes of the 
thing studied, are always the best teachers. One whose efforts 
have had much to do in elevating the teaching of geography to 



GEOGRAPHY. 133 

its proper place has well said, "We must elevate ourselves to the 
moral world to understand the physical world; the physical world 
has no meaning except by and for the moral world. It is, in fact, 
the universal law of all that exists in finite nature, not to have, 
in itself, either the reason or the entire aim of its own existence." 
This lays a broad and deep foundation for the teaching of such 
a material subject, since it removes the motive from material 
things alone to the higher and truer plane of intellectual and 
moral worth. While the fundamental needs of man, food, cloth- 
ing, and shelter, will still appeal to the ordinary man as the most 
powerful stimuli to the activities that direct the efforts of the 
race, and while all good teachers will continue to recognize this 
as a part of the purpose in all work, they will also see the higher 
motive crowning their efforts with a value not born alone of the 
physical utility sentiment. 

To the earnest teacher, then, the earth is not a mere mate- 
rial thing, but it becomes, instead, the complement of man by 
challenging him to a combat with physical forces that by action 
and reaction develop him in all the elements of his nature, phys- 
ical, mental, and moral. This improvement that has come in the 
line of geography teaching in the past years has led away from 
the old and barren ideas of dead forms to something with life 
and inspiration in it. From the sailor geography of capes, head- 
lands, bays and harbors, or the traveling man's mental picture of 
railroad lines and dots for cities on the map as the exclusive 
effort of the child, it has developed into a study that breathes of 
landscapes with brooks and meadows, farms of waving grain and 
grazing herds, railroads with steel rails and panting locomotives, 
and cities bustling with commercial life. 



134 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

<»>.— Value. 

On its lower or fact side alone, the subject in this day of the 
telephone and daily paper with rural delivery, is of great value. 
To read the modern newspaper intelligently requires an under- 
standing of the laws of climate and an instinctive knowledge of 
localities never before so necessary. But aside from its commer- 
cial value, as an instrument of education and as a means of mental 
development it should hold a place scarcely second even to any 
of the other subjects now taught in the common school. There 
is no locality, be it in city or country, where one can step out of 
doors without coming directly into touch with facts that impress 
the senses with percepts that are useful in the study of some 
phase of this subject. In connection with the materials gathered 
by the actual contact with things there is also the fund of images 
formed by the use of the receptive imagination as the descrip- 
tions of people and regions are read in magazines, papers and 
books. From these and the ideas gathered from actul experi- 
ence, the constructive imagination delights to build new and real 
views of things and places still unseen to the physical eye. 
Travel and direct observation are great educators, and should 
be utilized whenever possible when one has the mental develop- 
ment that makes it possible for him to interpret what he sees. 
Not far behind these, however, are the neighborhood rambles 
supplemented by library journeys that are within the reach of al- 
most any teacher, no matter how circumscribed the conditions may 
seem to be. The healthy imagination and its vigorous use are 
blessings that may be made to multiply the powers many fold. 
No other subject furnishes better opportunity for the cultivation 
of imaginative powers that may literally as well as figuratively be 
kept on the earth. While there is a wide range for growth in this 
particular, there is still so much of material reality that the mind 



GEOGRAPHY. 135 

cannot run off into the realm of day-dreams, but it can "see beyond 
the range of sight." It is the right of every child that he should 
have all the cultivation of this faculty that any and all of his school 
studies will give him so long as realities of sense and reason are 
not bankrupted and violated. 

70.— Starting Point. 

Every child when he enters the public school has a rich store 
of mental products laid away ready to attach themselves to such 
new ideas and experiences as show themselves to be closely 
enough related to deserve a welcome from the ideas already at 
home in the mind. Even before he enters the school at all he has 
a clear knowledge of the fact of change of seasons. He sees the 
birds come and go and knows something of seedtime and harvest. 
The milkman's visits, the call of the grocery order boy and the 
delivery boy's rounds give him fundamental notions of products, 
need of these and the means of securing the things through 
commerce to supply this need. The clothing that he wears 
and the coal that cooks his food and keeps him warm in winter, 
are ever present materials for his investigation. The growth of 
plants never fails to attract his attention. All these are his in 
almost any community, or if not these, others just as valuable 
are at hand. He has been in the geographical laboratory all his 
life, and he should never fully graduate from it in all his years of 
study. The problem in his early school course it to take him just 
as he is and build upon the foundation already laid, after some 
remodeling, a superstructure of the broader concepts of the world 
and its relations to human life. Too much is it the custom to 
ignore the child and what he has at hand as materials with which 
to begin and fix upon him an arbitrary system of facts not at all 
suited to what he already knows when his teacher discovers him. 



136 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

When he reaches the higher grades the recognition of what he is 
and knows is even more essential than formerly, and all that has 
gone before should be at command constantly to interpret and 
illuminate the new ideas that must begin to crowd in upon him. 
It is not lack of ideas generally that hinders the progress of the 
average child, but failure on the part of the teacher to utilize prop- 
erly what he has. 

71. — Neglecting Things Previously Taught. 

In a former paragraph it was suggested that too frequently 
the concepts previously obtained were neglected as the pupil ad- 
vanced in the grades in his school duties. Not only is it often 
true that he is expected to learn new truth without seeing its con- 
nection with what has been acquired before, but even the truth 
of what has been taught him is overlooked and he is allowed, if 
not positively taught so to think or fail to think that his later 
knowledge is such as utterly to repudiate the truthfulness of 
what he had formerly learned as exact geographical knowledge. 
One or two illustrations from common practices will suffice to 
make this point clear, and the thoughtful teacher may then extend 
the view and govern her teaching accordingly. One of the first 
things the child learns after he has laid down his fundamentals 
in the home geography, is the fact that the earth is practically a 
sphere. He gets this as soon as he is led to look at the earth as 
a whole. When he has taken a few steps more he is allowed or 
induced to forget this and think of localities on the face of the 
earth as though they were on a flat surface. He does not see that 
the Indian of northern North America, the Lapp of the Arctic 
borders of Europe, and the forlorn exile of the Siberian desert 
might join hands and each stoutly assert to his neighbor that he 
is facing North, and vet the circle remain unbroken. For him 



GEOGRAPHY. 137 

the snow capped Himalayas lift their heads in a direction that he 
thinks (if he tries to think direction at all on the real earth), names, 
and points out as southwest instead of directly north as the direc- 
tion would be named for the pupil in central United States. He 
talks of a spherical earth and practices his thinking on a flat sur- 
face. Thinking and traveling may generally be done over widely 
separated routes. To think and point directly over Labrador in 
trying to see the exact location of the mouth of the Nile or the 
Red Sea is entirely within reason and the truthful thing for the 
pupil to do. That he could travel on that line no one affirms, but 
that is the line of his thought if the earth remains to him a sphere 
as he was taught in his earlier work. He cannot travel to Mars, 
but he may think of the location of that planet and point directly 
to it in space. For practical purposes the thinking should be kept 
on the surface and not through the earth as by the former the 
line of thought is made to coincide with geographical features 
that thus may be kept well in mind. A teacher need not feel that 
a knowledge of spherical trigonometry is necessary to give her a 
grasp of the real conditions as to direction on the surface of the 
earth, but it is well to learn from nature as shown by the Gulf 
Stream and from the routes of commerce wherever possible for 
them to use it that the shortest distance on a sphere is on the 
circumference of a great circle. All these points and many more 
may easily be learned from a thirty cent globe by means of a 
string by a person that will measure and think. If the earth is a 
sphere, then make all the teaching of geography conform to that 
theory, and review the old and fix it in mind by the truthful 
teaching of the new. As the home surroundings are used to give 
the ideas from which the learner may build his concept of regions 
not seen, so should the globe help as a symbol to the idea of the 
great round world. 



138 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

72.— Maps. 

Next to the failure to have the globe teach its lessons as it 
should, comes the neglect of the help that well prepared maps 
should furnish. In his earlier course the pupil has also been 
taught to make maps of the school room, the yard, and possibly 
the immediate neighborhood, and these speak to him of portions 
of the advanced study of geography in the fact that they are the 
representations of geographical surfaces on paper. Too often 
when he comes to the study of the later and larger units he 
thinks of them merely as they appear to him on the map, and 
makes no vital connection between the map and the area supposed 
to be thus represented. In his early experiences with the map it 
was a means to an end, in the later work it is in danger of becom- 
ing the end in itself. Every good teacher will make much use of 
the map and will not be over anxious at first about thinking the 
real thing instead of the map, but after there has been such a grasp 
of the map of the region that relations may be clearly seen, then 
there should be every effort possible made to have the map per- 
form its proper purpose by holding before the mind a region with 
features and relations while the mind goes beyond the face of the 
paper to build up correct images of the locality outlined on the 
paper. These forms are but arbitrary symbols devised that por- 
tions of the globe may be brought to the attention at one view. 
The thing symbolized is always more valuable as an educational 
element than the symbol invented to represent it. In notes for 
grades as low as the fifth grade, we find Col. Parker speaking as 
follows: "Put aside maps and ask questions. Test, continually, 
your pupils' power to picture the continent without the presence of 
maps." Another mistake in the use of maps which should be 
avoided is that of putting small areas before the class without hav- 
ing them see the relation to the larger unit of which they are parts. 



GEOGRAPHY. 139 

Each part should be seen and imaged in its proper setting before 
being studied in detail. Also in handling the map in school the 
teacher should see to it that the pupil does not get erroneous 
notions of directions from the position of his seat in the school 
room. Many a person goes through life "all turned round" be- 
cause he sat facing the south when he studied geography and the 
teacher was not careful to have the proper corrections of direction 
made when the map was used. 

73. — The Globe. 

A common error made by teachers in handling the globe be- 
fore the class is to violate the relation of north pole of globe and 
the north star. Since the pupil has been taught that the north pole 
of the earth always points in the direction of the north star, the 
globe as a symbol of the real earth should not fail to enforce that 
truth. So far as possible the globe left standing in the room 
while not in use should be kept in proper relations to express real 
conditions. Likewise it frequently happens that in following 
grades after his earlier teacher has tried hard to impress upon the 
pupil that the earth rotates on its axis from west to east, the globe 
will be held before him and be rotated vigorously in the opposite 
direction. These are little things in themselves, but they have 
great value in their observance in preventing the fixing of wrong 
ideas or violating the truth that has been taught in former grades. 

74. — Teaching Locality. 

Sometimes the later texts in geography are critized on the 
ground that by their use pupils are not well grounded in the loca- 
tion of important cities, state boundaries, directions of flow of 
rivers and similar features that compose the subject matter of the 
books of our father's days. It is true that such things are not 



140 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

given the prominence in these books that was formerly the cus- 
tom, but they are there however. The prominence given to the 
climate, geographical structure, and all the natural features that 
contribute to the location, prominence and industries of the city 
does not displace the other element of its existence, location. 
Since more attention is given to the reasons why the city is where 
it is, there is greater inducement to know of its location as an 
example of results coming from certain causes. The study of a 
river, valley or a mountainous region to learn its importance in 
contributing to the wants of the race gives still more excuse for 
making its location a matter of careful drill. It is not now a 
question of locating for mere memory training, but locating with 
the feeling that there is reason for the things being where they are. 
Not less of understanding the exact position of geographical 
features of importance, but more of an understanding why they 
are there, is the demand of the new text. The pupil should 
not only get the map location of the region he studies, but he 
should see its relation on the earth as to his own locality. He 
should feel that his lesson is never prepared while there is any 
place mentioned in comparison or directly the exact location of 
which he cannot give as to hemisphere, continent, and generally 
with some degree of accuracy as to latitude. It is not less of local- 
lization, but more of association of reason for the location that is 
needed and expected in the teaching of the present. 

75. — Sketching. 

As a means of teaching accurately and quickly the points that 
shall be carried in mind by the pupil as to location and relation 
to each other and to the home of the pupil, sketching of areas, 
small and large, should be employed. It is not details that should 
receive attention but salient features rather. The area to be 



GEOGRAPHY. 141 

sketched should be analyzed at first into some simple elements 
that are readily seen as outlines and features of relation that the 
pupil may easily then put on paper with such a degree of accu- 
racy that he will feel his work is creditable and that it expresses 
ideas that are seeking expression on his part. The teacher may 
use the board and pupils follow on paper. Pupils may be led to 
devise outlines and sketch areas both in the flat and relief repre- 
sentation as a means of showing their own concepts of regions 
under discussion. The class may well use the board for part of 
this work. The chief difficulty with this as with much of the 
other work attempted, is that it is put before the child in the mass 
of details instead of simple units that come clearly within his grasp. 
This sketching should be a means for expressing his ideas which 
have been obtained by study of his own locality and the use of 
good relief and descriptive maps of the regions of the earth be- 
yond his personal observation. In his efforts to express himself 
in this way his ideas will become clearer and should result not in 
fixing the map alone in mind, but the realities of the region 
studied as well or better than the map which is only a device for 
helping the mind to classify and grasp what is too large to be seen 
without the aid of some such device. The imaginative faculty 
should be exercised to have the real localities well in mind. "Lead 
them to imagine the coast as they draw it," not only sketch but 
think, should be the motto. 

76. — Geographical Reader. 

This is an instrumentality that should not be overlooked by 
the teacher. If it cannot be in the hands of the pupils the teacher 
should have access to as many of these as supplementary and to 
give new matter in an interesting way as it is possible to secure. 
These furnish more helpful information for the cost than any 



142 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

other kinds of books. By their use imaginary journeys can be 
laid out, classes prepared for the journey and finally taken in the 
reality on the trip through a sensibly trained imaginative faculty. 
One of the evil tendencies that manifests itself with pupils and 
teachers in using these supplementary helps is to scatter the work 
and fail to secure that unity of concepts that insures the proper 
growth of the mind. By careful localizing and constant attention 
to the chains of association that may thus be formed this may be 
avoided. Another injurious attitude of mind is that of looking 
upon new facts that this closer view of the peoples of remote 
regions gives as things to be regarded as curiosities rather than 
representative of actualities. A closer scrutiny of our own cus- 
toms might reveal things that would possibly not be easily ex- 
plained as outside the curious if that is the attitude that is to be 
taken toward what is not well understood. So far as a thing is 
regarded as a mere monstrosity or curiosity it is of little educa- 
tional value. 

77. — Illustrative Matter. 

In no other subject are there so many opportunities for col- 
lecting helpful illustrative matter with little expense as in geog- 
raphy. Illustrations from magazines and papers and the pictures 
that may be collected from the publishers of the different series 
of penny pictures are frequently very serviceable. The railroads 
and steamship lines are constantly sending out folders with maps, 
pictures, and descriptions that contain much helpful matter for the 
use of the teacher and the class. Often from these information 
of particular localities may be gained that cannot be found in any 
of the publications for reference even in well filled libraries. Like- 
wise the patent parts of the local papers of any community often 
supply things needed. In the use of these sources the teacher 



GEOGRAPHY. 143 

should exercise care that, the material may be known to be 
authentic. 

78. — Types and Correlation. 

Much energy and time are wasted in neglecting to use prop- 
erly what has been taught in previous lessons as type forms with 
which to interpret similar new ideas. When mining in one part 
of the country or globe is well understood, all that is necessary to 
make it clear as an industry in other parts is a clear review of 
what has already been learned with such comparisons with the 
particular region as will show the differences from what has been 
studied, thus making the new clear and reviewing the former 
work at the same time. Everything in this subject is so naturally 
bound up in cause and effect or in similarity or contrast easily 
observed, that it is a branch that should be delightful to teach and 
that should yield a rich harvest of ideas from the teaching. In 
addition to the connection made with work in the earlier part of 
the study itself, there should also be points of union with the read- 
ing book and with topics in history. These efforts will not only 
add new interest to the subjects immediately in hand, but keep 
the knowledge of geography thoroughly in mind, and give the 
reading lesson and the historical fact real existence to the pupil. 
Selections from the reader can be made to re-enforce the work on 
seasons, localities, products and similar topics. Much that now is 
supposed to burden an over crowded course of study as nature 
work may well be attended to in the geography hour to the advan- 
tage of the study of geography and the peace of mind of the "fad" 
eradicator. 

79.— Aids. 

The books written especially to aid the teacher in this sub- 
ject are many, and most of them are valuable. A few of the best 



X44 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

are mentioned although there is no attempt to make the list ex- 
haustive. All the late text books are very helpful, especially when 
studied so as to grasp the ends in view by the writers and pub- 
lishers. The series of geographies lately completed by Tarr & 
McMurry is worthy the careful study of any teacher as works on 
methods on teaching geography as well as for the insight into 
material that should appear in the text book. Excellent supple- 
mentary help is found in the very fine lists of geographical read- 
ers brought out by the various standard publishing houses. We 
would mention in the way of drawing and blackboard illustrat- 
ing in the subjects, Easy Drawings for the Geography Class, 
Augsburg; Tracing and Sketching Lessons, Gillan; Geography 
by Map Drawing, Kellogg, and best of this kind, for relief work, 
Chalk Modeling, the New Method of Map Drawing, Ida C. Hef- 
fron. Works of a more general type are : The Teaching of Geog- 
raphy, Geikie ; King's Methods and Aids in Teaching Geography ; 
Suggestions on Teaching Geography and Practical Work in Geog- 
raphy, McCormick, (two books). And another of especial value 
if read and studied until understood in fact and spirit, How to 
Study and Teach Geography, Parker. 



HISTORY. 145 

IV. 
HISTORY. 

SO.— Making it Real. 

Every pupil knows that the events with which his experi- 
ences have associated him are composed of the following ele- 
ments. What is the action or fact discussed? Where did it take 
place? When did it happen? Who were the parties concerned? 
Why should this have come to pass? If history is to have reality 
to him it must show vividly the same elements. In other words, 
the events must live again in the pupil himself. Nationality, 
language, modes of dress, religious ideas, educational opportun- 
ities, occupation, means of travel and communication, weapons, 
and the like should be revived through the quickened imagination 
of the learner. In order that this may be accomplished he must 
have a teacher that is alive to every interest and very much in 
earnest. The teaching should seek to create such clear pictures 
and arouse such feelings that the learner may be able in the high- 
est degree possible to put himself into the time and place of the 
event under discussion. History, as every other subject, must 
find its starting point in the present conditions and attainments of 
the child. The discussions, the elections, the laws, all experiences 
of the present must unite to furnish him the key with which he is 
to interpret the events that are remote in time and space. It is 
well to have the learner realize that the written records give but 
a small fraction of the actual deeds and experiences that have con- 
tributed in the past to make the present what it is. Therefore, 
from his own experiences and the few facts recorded he must 
learn to see beyond the present into the past through imagination, 



146 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

judgment, and reason. The tariff and financial problems as they 
now present themselves and now disturb the public mind should 
be the means of his understanding the agitations and feelings in 
the "thirties." The question of the negro in the south to-day 
should speak to him of the importation of the first negroes and the 
beginnings of slavery, and of the great civil war that grew out of 
those early crimes. This should broaden the mind and lead the 
pupil into the habit of thought that seeks to know all that may be 
known before conclusions are drawn. It should develop a spirit 
of logical conservatism that prevents hasty conclusions from in- 
sufficient data. The pupil should keep himself free from harsh 
judgments due to the ideals of his day differing from the standards 
set up and held in former days. Persecutions in New England 
may not be defended, but they may be explained by the fact that 
such things were the custom of the day. 

81.— The Text=Book and Other Devices. 

1. Text-book. However small this may be it is supposed 
to cover the entire ground. The parts may not be well balanced. 
The author may have certain tastes or certain experiences that 
have led him to attach importance to one period above another 
in undue measure. He may look too earnestly at the social, the 
political, or the industrial side of the subject. He may sacrifice 
fact and useful matter for the story of doubtful origin with a view 
to making history interesting. All these conditions the teacher 
should seek to overcome by a careful study of as many texts as 
can be secured. The interest in history must come in large meas- 
ure from the fullness of the teacher's knowledge and her love for 
the subject, rather than from any particular text-book treatment. 
The arrangement of topics is generally in chronological order. 
This is probably as good as any other arrangement for the book, 



HISTORY. 147 

but the teacher should seek to readjust topics to make geograph- 
ical units, or connect with important events others closely related 
although not nearest in point of time. In laying out work and 
making assignment ot lessons it can not be done by the number 
of pages of the text. Sometimes in a very few pages many im- 
portant events demanding a very full treatment in study and reci- 
tation are found. In other cases an extra number of pages may 
be taken as the unit of study because of the subordinate nature 
of the topics treated. A proper balance must be made and right 
ideas as to importance of items fixed in minds of pupils by the 
emphasis of time given to them. Units are to be observed instead 
of finding the lesson limits in the page given. All maps of the 
text-book should be properly studied and used. Pictures given 
are too frequently ignored. Pupils should acquire the habit of 
looking upon pictures as an aid in forming correct ideas of the 
event discussed on the printed page. Whenever possible the ref- 
erences given in the text should be looked up and the class should 
at least become familiar with other sources of information even if 
these can not all be used in preparing the lesson. Through a 
collection of text-books a body of the very best suggestions to 
teachers and pupils may be acquired. If these are properly in- 
vestigated and not blindly copied they may lead to many original 
ways of doing that will add a new interest to the work. 

2. Other devices. 

a. The larger maps for the wall, the outline maps for filling 
up with routes of exploration, important localities, and the relief 
map are always of advantage. Maps showing territorial expan- 
sion, the important campaigns in the leading wars, and com- 
mercial development should be prepared by the pupil. Back of 
all this map work the constant effort should be made to have the 



148 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

learner see a real country as the scene of the events studied, and 
not stop with the representations on paper. 

b. The large and small charts showing parallel movements 
in different localities at the same time, prepared by teacher and 
pupils are another constant aid. Growth in railroads and other 
industrial conditions may be readily shown by charting and color- 
ing. Related topics may be put upon a large chart for reviews 
and drills and preserved from year to year. A chart of the tariff 
having been in use four years is still valuable every time a new 
class goes over the history work. The section number of the text 
used is beside each topic on the chart so it can be readily used in 
assigning readings on this topic, both in the advance work and in 
review. 

c. A collection of pictures has its value in this subject as 
well as in geography and other branches. The firms supplying 
penny pictures are now beginning to furnish collections for class- 
room use in this branch. Such collections are within the reach of 
any good teacher of the subject. 

d. All relics that may be found in public collections and that 
pupils may bring from their homes should be utilized. Paper 
fractional currency, confederate paper money, stamps, original 
copies of public documents are enough to suggest things that may 
be used to talk more forcibly to the pupil of other days. 

e. In connection with this the suggestion should be made to 
have all material from original sources that it is possible for the 
pupil to handle intelligently used. This should supplement his 
text-book and render it more vivid. There is probably too much 
uncertainty of the power of teachers and pupils to attempt this 
plan of historical study to the exclusion of the well written text. 
The good text-book in this subject as in all others furnishes the 
starting and returning point of the pupil in all his side excursions 



HISTORY. 149 

for broader investigation. Life is too short to waste the pupil's 
time having him try to become a writer of his own historical text- 
book from original documents. These may make clearer his 
views and consequently should be used, but he needs a guide upon 
which to found his investigations. 

f. The pupils should in many cases keep note books in which 
to record answers to questions of their own formulating, and to 
such as the teacher and the nature of the subject may suggest. 
These note books should not be made up of quotations from the 
texts handled, but should be the expression in the pupil's own 
words of the ideas he has obtained from his side readings. They 
may contain outlines of work made out by himself and discussed 
in class. It is questionable whether outlines made by the teacher 
and dictated for copying into note books are of much value. Pic- 
tures from papers and magazines may profitably be put into the 
note books. An occasional clipping from a newspaper should 
find a place there. Let the book be a means of collecting and fas- 
tening historical material in pupil's minds, and not an end in itself 
to be judged alone by the pages filled. 

g. Aside from the literature that is purely historical there are 
the large collections of writings of standard poets and prose writers 
that have value as side lights and stimulants to the historical inves- 
tigations of the young student. These should be named and as 
many as possible read and discussed. It is through these and the 
other side excursions that the teacher should seek to arouse the 
taste for history in connection with the text book rather than by 
having a text-book padded with stories. 

S2._How to Work, Drills, Reviews. 

1. A general view of the ground to be covered should be 
taken with the class at the opening of the term's work. This may 



150 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

be done from table of contents and from an examination of the 
pages of the text. It is well to have pupils recognize how many 
pages are devoted to the various leading topics. Each of these 
collections of pages may stand to the child as a small historical 
treatise on the subject at the head of the list. A rapid view of 
chief places and some of the leading characters will be valuable. 

2. The lesson plan on the history lesson or lessons given on 
an earlier page suggests in outline that a careful assignment is 
necessary in order that pupils may form the right habits of study. 
There should be suggestions made that lead to attention to all 
points in a manner commensurate with their importance. Cer- 
tainly the Charleston earthquake is not of equal importance with 
the civil service reform movement, yet pupils often study them 
with equal emphasis. 

3. Germ ideas should be recognized and carefully taught 
so that they may be easily recalled when their fruits in later years 
are reached. "To the victors belong the spoils," can not be made 
real clear to the pupil as a dangerous practice in governmental 
policy, possibly, but the fact of its introduction into our govern- 
ment should be recognized and the evils noted from time to time 
in the later study until it resulted in the civil service legislation of 
the closing years of the century. The Kentucky and Virginia res- 
olutions, the Hartford convention and nullification should stand 
related to secession. The origin and continuation of political 
parties due to difference of interpretation put upon the constitu- 
tion should be seen. The fact of the change in view sometimes 
wrought by assuming power and responsibility is well illustrated 
in Jefferson and the Louisiana purchase and the Embargo Act. 

4. When the constitutional convention is under consideration 
is a good season for a study of leading features of the text of the 
constitution. The right to free speech and a free press there 



HISTORY. 151 

guaranteed should be seen and the Sedition Law of the admini- 
stration of the elder Adams compared in its aim with the license 
assumed by the anarchistic element of our population to-day. 
After the sad experience through which this nation has so recently 
passed, it is well to stop and consider whether we are not giving 
undue weight to the idea and allowing utterances to pass unchal- 
lenged that the constitution in no sense guarantees one the license 
to make. A study of the election of eighteen-twenty-four gives a 
good opportunity to refer to the method of the election of presi- 
dent. Parts of Washington's farewell address, Lincoln's inaugu- 
rals, Gettysburg speech in full, some of the patriotic utterances of 
Webster should be used. These are but suggestions of lines that 
should be followed. 

5. Much of the discussion made in class should be through 
topical recitation. Frequently there is too much questioning done 
on the part of the teacher. The pupil should do the. talking. Have 
pupils prepare lists of written questions to be used in the recitation 
period. Brief debates may be arranged. Written exercises may 
be given to be prepared and brought to class and many written 
exercises of a few minutes length should be done by the class in 
recitation periods. Some of the formal language materials should 
be gotten from these written exercises in history. 

6. Much attention should be given to the biographies of 
prominent persons. Comparisons may be drawn and the pupil 
asked to state what he admires in the characters and why he 
makes such a choice. This results in habits of right moral judg- 
ment and leads eventually to imitation of the good in the lives of 
the persons studied. Comparison of Jackson and Lincoln shows 
two men of very strong will power. They were very different 
men, however. The one was a hurricane overturning every thing 
before him through his indomitable will, the other was a mighty, 



152 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

placid Mississippi finding his way among rocks and around ob- 
structions, but eventually reaching the goal of success with less 
destruction and ever so much more power than his predecessor. 

7. The teaching of the campaigns in the revolutionary war 
and in the civil war is probably of value, for they show plan and 
design. The operations around Boston, the struggle for the 
Hudson river region, the retreat across New Jersey, winter at 
Valley Forge and flight of British across New Jersey, and the war 
in the south show in brief view by campaigns the movement of 
this great struggle. In the civil war, beginning in 1862, there are 
two or three great movements that can readily be traced by years. 
War in the west between the mountains and the Mississippi; the 
war in the east in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennslyvania; and the 
blockading of the southern ports. 

8. There is a great deal of confusion as to the importance 
of the learning of dates in history. Every good teacher of history 
should set his face decidedly in favor of the careful mastery of a 
number of these as guide posts through the wilderness of facts 
that would otherwise confront the learner at every stage of his 
progress. By consulting the very latest and best common school 
texts it is found that from twenty-five to fifty dates are suggested 
to be well learned. Of course with every date learned there should 
be associated the persons, the events, and the place. Learningdates 
without these features is almost a waste of time. For fixing 
events well in mind pupils should make topical outlines of facts 
recently learned. These should grow larger and include more 
facts as the work proceeds until at the end a good outline could be 
written by the pupil to cover the entire period of our history. 
Another means is the written summary, not in outline but in form 
of brief statements,making a brief essay of connected points on the 
period of history studied. Grouping important names, important 



HISTORY. 153 

events, and prominent places in series is another means of fixing 
the desired materials in the mind. The more varied the associa- 
tions and the more frequently they are touched the richer the con- 
tent of historical matter the mind has for its effort. 

9. Reviews. A common way and one of value is to take up 
the points as they come in order of time. This is a chronological 
review and has the time element for its unifying principle. To 
make a list of important names of persons from the earliest times 
to the present is another means of review. This has biography 
for its connecting chain. Another helpful way is to make geog- 
raphical units. New England, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, 
Washington, Virginia, and the like will suggest how this may be 
done. Still another and one of the very best is to take an impor- 
tant topic — the tariff, or slavery, or growth of territory, and trace 
it down to the present with the leading events which it influenced 
or which modified it. Here some of the chart work mentioned 
before is helpful. Yet another means of review is by use of the 
index. Topics may be taken by their relations in nature, or time, 
or the index, right from the beginning may be used by advanced 
classes, taking a general review, locating each event in proper 
time and place as it is found without regard to unity of thought. 
If proper associations have been made in the teaching these re- 
views will be a pleasure rather than a task. 



154 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

V. 

ARITHMETIC. 

83. — Mechanical and Memory Work. 

1. Power and skill in the fundamental operations are 
acquired mechanically and through memory development. This 
work should be done early in the course. It should be made per- 
manent through constant drills and repetitions until the pupil has 
perfect mastery over these simple tables and operations. The 
interest may be aroused and attention sustained through the 
child's inclination to do things and his desire to test his strength 
continually. The devices used should be varied frequently, but 
the practice given should be constant. Books and papers and the 
teacher's ingenuity should suggest variety enough for the work 
to insure continued interest. All pupils can do this drill work. It 
is in no sense the solution of problems. Proper drills at this 
stage of the work will save much time in following school days 
and be a blessing and comfort to the person throughout life. 
Drill, and continue to drill, but give the operation life by change 
of devices and the life and energy thrown into the work. 

2. In line with the mastery of the tables and drills in the 
fundamental operations come the ideas of factors and the ready 
recognition of factors of smaller numbers. The squares and cubes 
of the digital numbers may be learned. Naming odd numbers, 
concrete numbers, abstract numbers, is now worth while. In 
teaching all these fundamental and secondary operations, as in 
fact all first presentation of new operations, the numbers used 
should be small and within easy grasp of the class. 



ARITHMETIC. 155 

S4. — Terms of Fundamental Operations. 

The terms used in fundamental operations should be under- 
stood and thoroughly learned. All the operations of arithmetic 
are founded on the handling of addends and sums, products and 
factors. These should be well understood and their nature and 
definitions clearly in minds of pupils. Addition has addends 
given to find a sum. In subtraction a sum (minuend) and one 
(subtrahend) of two addends are given that the other addend 
may be found. Multiplication furnishes one of a number of 
addends (multiplicand) of the same size, the. number of which is 
named in the multiplier or other factor given. These make the 
factors from which the product (sum) is to be obtained. The pro- 
cess of division is based upon a given product (dividend) and one 
factor (divisor) from which the other factor may be found. It 
is a short method of making many subtractions of the same num- 
ber, it is true, but to see it as the reverse of multiplication is prob- 
ably all that is necessary for the ordinary class. These relations 
of the terms in one process to those in another with the names 
changed because of the new operation, should be clearly seen 
by the learner. Illustration: — Sum, in addition, becomes min- 
uend in subtraction, product in multiplication and dividend in 
division. The pupil should trace these relations in parallels in 
that way using all terms. At the same time these terms are 
taught and used the principles belonging under each operation 
should be illustrated, when possible, and all thoroughly learned. 
The fundamental operations should be performed rapidly without 
counting on fingers, by pencil taps, or other devices. In the ear- 
lier grammar grades the pupil may possibly have to think the 
figure symbols as he performs mental drills but later he should be 
able to name results without seeing any symbols before the mind's 
eye — 7+4 should suggest 11 without his needing to see, even men- 



156 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

tally,, the symbols that represent the result on paper. The prin- 
ciples learned at this stage should form the foundation to prevent 
careless and incorrect statements and work in later processes. 
In all advance work pupils should be able to recognize what 
operations and terms are applicable and see that no principles 
learned in the past are violated. "Multiplying both dividend and 
divisor by the same number does not change the quotient." This 
should help and should be used in fractions as the basis for the 
statement that, ''multiplying both numerator and denominator by 
the same number does not alter the value of the fraction." In 
division of decimals the same thing is used when dividend and 
divisor are multiplied by such a number as to make the divisor a 
whole number before dividing in order that there may be no dif- 
ficulty in placing the point in the quotient. The same principle 
appears again in ratio. Very frequently teachers and pupils make 
statements as follows: "Forty sheep multiplied by three dollars 
equals the cost of the sheep, or one hundred and twenty dollars." 
"Three feet multiplied by two feet equals six square feet." Keep- 
ing in mind the principles would show the absurdity of such 
statements and prevent their use. Why have these principles at 
all if they are constantly violated in this way in the later work? 

85. — Power to Image Mathematical Magnitudes. 

The author of a late series of arithmetics has stated in a recent 
address some pertinent thoughts on this phase of arithmetical 
work. 'The really difficult thing for the pupil in mathematics is 
not figure manipulation; it is not the seeing of the relations of 
magnitudes. It is the imaging of the magnitudes to be compared. 
What shall we do about it? Confront the pupil oftener with ob- 
jects of sense? Not necessarily. Rather lead him oftener to 
image. This work must be begun in the lowest grades. The 



ARITHMETIC. 157 

only way for the pupils to learn to image is by imaging. The time 
to begin is immediately after he has perceived (seen or felt) the 
sense object." This work should begin in actual measurements 
and comparisons of sense objects. The step next to this in devel- 
oping this power is calling up in memory the images of objects 
measured and comparing these images. The final power, and the 
one for which the others are preparatory steps, is the ability to 
create imaginary measured magnitudes and compare the images. 
In the first of these three steps many objects will be used. Fewer 
objects will be needed as the pupil grows older. But some must 
be used, even at the last of his public school course. Pupils fail 
constantly because of inability to image objects, magnitudes, and 
relations that their problems present. Illustration: — An oblong 
three inches by four inches has square inches. The peri- 
meter of this oblong is . Unless the pupil images an oblong 

of about these proportions and sees fully the shape and size his 
work is a mere rote process and has little value. Such work is 
not to be of the mechanical nature for fixing tables of operation 
in memory, but for developing mathematical power. A large per- 
centage of the failures in arithmetic is due to lack of this imaging 
power. 

S6. — A Few Suggestions. 

1. Reading a problem understanding^ is practically solv- 
ing it. When the pupil has read his problem and can put the 
statement of the fundamental elements with the proper signs in 
the order that will bring right results when the operations are 
performed, he has solved it. The remaining work is of the me- 
chanical kind that he learned before he was able to do much 
problem work. In this matter of solving problems it is not al- 
ways necessary or desirable that the mechanical work shall fol- 



158 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

low immediately after the solution. Sometimes the statements 
may be preserved and given some days afterward as a drill in 
mechanical operations from "indicated work." Numerical an- 
swers are not the only result that the pupil should think he is 
to reach. The proper statement of the elements and relations 
in the problems are to concern him most of all. It is in this pro- 
cess that his reasoning powers are trained. 

2. The former statements lead naturally to the question of 
forms of analysis. In times past, or possibly not yet fully past, 
there has been a waste of time and energy over long and tedious 
forms of analysis. There should be analysis and good statements 
of each step so that the pupil may acquire the habit of thinking 
and stating definitely the product of his thought. This is training 
in language as a means of better work in arithmetic, since it is 
the formulation of arithmetical thought in symbolical and ver- 
bal statement. As an illustration of a brief but good analysis a 
problem and its analysis are taken from The New Practical 
Arithmetic, by A. W. Rich. This is found on page 163. 

"A man paid $750 for a house, which was 21 per cent, of 
what he paid for 160 acres of land. What was the cost of the 
land per acre?" 

Solution : — 

24% equals the per cent, of the cost of the land in the cost 
of the house. 

$750-4-.24=the value of the land, or $3,125. 

$3,125-r-160=the cost of the land per acre, or $19.53£. 

This goes directly to the point and is based upon operations 
with which the pupil should be entirely familiar, thus precluding 
the necessity of longer and more complicated statements. It 
will be noticed that the portion after the word "or" in each state- 
ment is the numerical result obtained from the performance of 



ARITHMETIC. 159 

the mechanical operations indicated in the early part of the state- 
ment, which is the solution proper. 

3. When the pupils are found to be in difficulty it is not 
explanation on the part of the teacher that is needed, but simpler 
oral work of the same nature and recognition of past work 
and principles that may have slipped from the mind. A little 
drill of this kind will generally lead the pupil up to his difficulty 
in such a manner that he will overcome it without farther effort. 
It may be well here to suggest that oral work should lead up 
systematically to the more difficult written work. The written 
work has no new elements, but is simply the manner of handling 
numbers that stand in the same relation as those of the oral 
problems, but are too large to be manipulated without the aid 
of the pencil. There is oral and written arithmetic, but not men- 
tal and written as is so frequently mentioned. 

4. There should be reviews of special topics from time to 
time, but they should be new views from other matter and should 
make the earlier work clearer because of the later ideas that have 
been seen. However, the most profitable reviews are the daily 
recalling of principles and back operations upon which the ad- 
vance is naturally based. Having meanings of indicated opera- 
tions and problems stated is a good way to keep the past work 
fresh in the mind. An excellent review and at the same time a 
device that clears up ideas, is to have problems written by the 
pupils. The number story of the primary school should never be 
outgrown, but should be used both in the advance work and in 
the reviews. 

5. The blackboard is a convenient and useful device in the 
school room, and is very helpful when properly used in the arith- 
metic recitation. It is to be used sometimes for whole class exer- 
cises, but more frequently there should be but one pupil at the 



160 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

board. Let one put work on board while others work on slates 
or paper, and the work on the board can be used for comparison, 
and if nothing needs discussion another pupil may go to the 
board and a new problem be solved. In this way many problems 
may be solved and all or nearly all pupils can have board work. 
Until the teacher can manage the class very well the board work 
should not be attemptetd by having the whole class at the board 
at once. Even well managed classes in the grades waste much 
time when large numbers are sent to the board too often. The 
teacher should use the board a great deal in furnishing supple- 
mentary work that will lead the pupil over his difficulty. The 
board should be used to make clear new ideas or words by draw- 
ings and by writing the word. New words should first be pre- 
sented through voice of teacher, but they should also be written 
on the board, pronounced by pupils, and finally written by class. 
6. There are three parts in the pupils' arithmetical work, 
the mechanical processes, solution of problems, and explaining 
why processes are conducted as they are. In the public school 
there is not much time for the third one of these questions. It 
matters little why there is "borrowing ten" in subtraction, why 
the product is the same in kind as the multiplicand, and sim- 
ilar explanations that are frequently demanded. There is no 
explanation of the pupil's problem necessary when he has 
once written his solution. The solution itself shows what 
is meant in each step. The old way of sending entire 
classes to the board and giving each one a problem from 
the list assigned for study, having each take his seat when 
he has finished to wait for all to finish, and then have 
each "explain" his problem belongs to the days of the hand sickle 
and the corduroy postal route. The lesson of this kind should 
be brought to class prepared on paper. One pupil may name the 



ARITHMETIC. 161 

first step, another may read from his paper how he took it, an- 
other gives the next step, and so on through the list. Problems 
from outside the lesson should then be solved, having one at the 
board and others at work on paper. Time is wasted on non- 
essentials very frequently, and pupils sent out without ability to 
solve problems and do the mechanical work accurately and with 
proper rapidity. 

7. There are superstitions and mistaken ideas about diffi- 
culties that never should be fastened in the minds of the pupils. 
A few of these are fractions, longitude and time, interest, metric 
system. Fractions may be presented in such a way and so re- 
lated to the fundamental operations that all terrors are avoided. 
The trouble with longitude and time is not one of arithmetic, but 
rather that of weakness of geographical ideas. Consequently this 
is a topic that should not be presented until mathematical geog- 
raphy has been well taught. This topic is a combination of geo- 
graphy and the operations of denominate numbers. There is 
very little that is new in this division of arithmetic and all diffi- 
culties disappear if the geographical ideas are clear and the pupil 
can manage denominate numbers. In the calcutions of interest 
the greatest difficulty is manipulations of decimals and denom- 
inate numbers again. The point asserted here, is that there is 
little that is new in calculating interest, but that previous work 
properly understood will remove most of the difficulties in inter- 
est. Another illustration of a prejudice that is too prevalent is 
the regard in which the metric system is held. It is not a diffi- 
cult system to teach, and when properly presented with our 
money system, our system of decimal notation, and with decimals 
proper becomes easy and interesting. A shade stick, some rulers 
made from the top of a crayon box and other simple devices, 
may furnish all the material for teaching this system effectively. 



162 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

The names are not difficult to use if the thing named is known. 
Meter, decimeter, and others are fully within the grasp of the 
pupils as soon as the length named is seen fully by the pupil. 
Here is a good illustration of the necessity of presenting the 
thing before the word is given. The metric system is worthy of 
attention, it can be taught and should be taught. Instead of tak- 
ing extra time it may help in applying decimals and thus make 
the teaching of this part of fractions more effective. These illus- 
trations are given merely as suggestions of the little that is new 
in any particular division of arithmetic, and how closely all new 
topics are related to what has been presented earlier. Instead of 
cutting out so many topics in the arithmetic, as it is sometimes 
proposed to do, time may be saved by properly relating the new 
to the old and clearer views and more power attained by re- 
taining all topics since in the main they furnish so much applica- 
tion of old knowledge. 



PHYSIOLOGY. 163 

VI. 
PHYSIOLOGY. 

87.— The Body. 

This subject is usually presented to the pupil under three 
distinct topics — anatomy, physiology proper, and hygiene. The 
first of these deals with the mechanism or structure, the second, 
with the functions or work of the different organs, and the last 
with the preservation of the healthful conditions of the organs 
and in a simple way with the restoration of moderately diseased 
parts. The problem confronting the teacher is to find the point of 
contact best adapted to the class in taking up the subject. There 
is a range of topics found in the body itself all the way from the 
almost senseless cell to the most highly developed physical crea- 
tion on the earth — the human nervous system. Between these 
extremes lie all the accessory organisms that make possible the 
existence and continued life of the nervous system, which is, after 
all, the real man so near as any thing physical can approach real 
soul life. The scientifically logical treatment would probably be- 
gin with the cell and trace the developement of the organs by the 
grouping and modifications of these cells. This may not be the 
pedagogically logical thing to do, however. In the lower grades 
a study of the simpler notions of frame-work, muscles, digestive 
system has probably been made through their purposes as shown 
by the work they do. When the class approaches the higher 
grammar grades a new point of approach may profitably be 
taken. The cell — and it is as easily made clear to a pupil through 
use of the common tgg as many a distant fact in geography or 
history — may be briefly discussed and the tissues of the body 



164 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

shown to arise from arrangement and modifications of these. 
Brick and mortar may remain the same and yet make walls, pil- 
lars, partitions according to arrangement for the purpose of the 
thing constructed. These may be modified, as harder brick, par- 
ticular changes in mortar for different purposes. So it is with the 
cells, and so the pupil may readily be led to see for himself that 
cells may do different work according to the purpose of the organ 
which they combine to form. This gives a new and a fresh view 
to the pupil and puts the work on a nigher plane than it had held 
before. 

88.— The Nervous System. 

After the preliminary view of the cells the real starting point 
should be through a general view of the nervous system. This 
is the one system with which the conscious life of the child is 
most closely in touch. It is the system that brings the real child- 
mind and soul into touch with the outer world of the senses. 
It is the system for whose existence and continued life all the 
other systems of the body have been created. It is that part of 
material creation that is nearest the spiritual world, and it is in 
that world that the child's real existence is found. Hunger, pain, 
pleasure, fear, punishment, satisfactions of the senses are all 
manifested to him through this wonderful mechanism. It is the 
wonder worker of the human body. He feels and knows physi- 
cal effects on his body by its operations. In the treatment of 
this part of the study the teacher may make it as interesting and 
inspiring as the childhood tales of fairy land. Since the pupil is 
so rich in experiences through this system it is the proper place, 
in higher grades at least, to approach the study of the entire sub- 
ject. Not the detailed study should be undertaken here, but a 
general view of its nature and functions should be seen. How er- 



PHYSIOLOGY. 165 

roneous to teach a pupil of the lower systems first and leave him 
to think of their operations as due to some mysterious, inex- 
plainable property within themselves when it is the nervous sys- 
tem that makes them act as they do. There are probably many 
teachers who have wondered why muscles could contract and 
relax in that mysterious way that is left so uncertain in the mind 
when all mention of the nervous system in this connection is 
avoided. The same may be said of all the other lower systems 
of the body. The writer has for several years felt that a change 
in point of view in teaching should be made here. In talks with 
teachers on the subject he has advocated a change in the order of 
presentation of the ordinary text in accordance with this view. 
Within the past few months a high school text-book* on physi- 
ology has appeared which every teacher is advised to secure and 
study, to get a clearer view of this mode of treatment than can 
be presented here. 

S9. — Purpose of the Organs the Underlying Idea. 

In treatment of the structure of the skeleton, the muscles, the 
digestive system, the respiratory organs, the circulatory system; 
the nature, location and composition of each should be seen 
through the purpose it is to fulfill. (Read Philosophy of Teach- 
ing, Tompkins, pp. 162-169.) All these parts are what they are 
because of the work they do for the body. The fuller discussion 
of the nervous system should proceed in the same way. This 
leads into the higher realm of training, forming habits and even 
to the fundamentals of psychology, which is not after all, so ab- 
stract a matter as some wordy writers would have us believe. 
When the abundant experiences of the pupil are taken into con- 
sideration it may not be extreme to say that a sensible, brief 

♦{Physiology for High' Schools,— Macy-Norris. American Book Co.) 



166 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

treatment of some of the most common phases of mental and 
spiritual life would make a profitable close to the pupil's high 
school course in following his study of physiology. At least the 
end and purpose of the body as a whole should be determined in 
the ultimate operation in giving mind and soul all the develop- 
ment possible. This would then lead to a sensible discussion of 
the uses and abuses of stimulants and narcotics with a firm basis 
for a stand against the misuse and strong advocacy of the grave 
dangers in most cases of any course but one of total abstinence. 

00. — Illustrations and Devices. 

Good charts are always valuable in the teaching of this sub- 
ject. Blackboard sketches by the teacher and drawings made on 
paper by the pupils are essential aids. The stencil and the en- 
larging apparatus mentioned on an earlier page may be used to 
advantage by the teacher. The pupil should be led to think of 
these various parts as existing in his own body and not remem- 
ber them from chart, drawing or book alone. Bone and muscle 
should be brought to class from home and used as illustrative 
material. This of course is lifeless and shows structure only. A 
heart, an eye, the lungs from the meat market if properly han- 
dled make good illustrative matter. Care should be taken to 
present them in the most tactful and least offensive way, so that 
sensitive children may not be nauseated or shocked. There is 
not a great deal of opportunity for it and probably it would not 
be wise to have dissections of entire animals in the class room 
of the public school. The preparation of such an animal as the 
frog beforehand so that relations of organs may be demonstra- 
ted to class in the recitation may be well. The illustration of the 
nervous system can be made in this way. A skeleton of a small 
animal of this kind may be prepared to do good service, and it is 



PHYSIOLOGY. 167 

no greater step for the constructive imagination to see the human 
skeleton from such illustrations than it is to see the continent 
and globe from home geography, modeling board, and maps. 
Finally the entire group of systems making the body should be 
seen as a unit, each working with the other and for it when neces- 
sary, and all contributing to the nervous system which in return 
protects, warns, and guides them as the master mechanism of 
the body. 



168 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

VII. 
LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 

91.— The Mechanics of Written Work. 

It is quite possible that too much stress is placed upon the 
original written language work of the ordinary school. When 
one stops to consider the burden that is placed upon the mind 
of the ordinary child as to what he must keep in mind in order 
to prepare a page of passably well written English, he is ready 
to assert that there is waste of effort and probably injury to come 
from the practice of so much written work as specific language 
training. A brief examination of the subject of technical know- 
ledge necessary to write acceptably reveals quite an array of 
things to be remembered. 

1. At the very outset the learner is met with the difficulty 
of capitalization. This is not so very far beyond his comprehen- 
sion as to the beginning of sentences, but when he must remem- 
ber to recognize every proper noun, names of the month, appella- 
tions of the deity, adjectives derived from proper nouns, and 
things personified, with other words that religious and politi- 
cal prejudices and local pride may fasten upon him, the burden is 
by no means light. 

2. Next may be mentioned that bugbear of all teachers of 
English, punctuation. In spite of the effort to have it understood, 
in a moderate degree at least, every pupil soon becomes a law 
unto himself in the matter once he has escaped the eye of the 
teacher. With the marks for the close of the sentence he can 
do reasonably well, but when it comes to marshalling the comma, 
semicolon, colon, quotation marks, hyphen, dash, apostrophe and 
their kindred into line he does not do it, but throws himself upon 



LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 1(39 

the intelligence and good humor of his correspondent for charit- 
able interpretation. In the use of abbreviations the pupil finds 
himself not only bothered as to the right form to employ, but 
also he is put to no small trouble to know just when to make use 
of the abbreviation and when to write the word out in full. 

3. Every teacher knows that pupils always need all the drill 
that it is possible to give them in spelling, and that when the 
ordinary pupil's mind is entirely given to the spelling exercise 
there are still many words that baffle him. In his written lan- 
guage work he not only struggles with the spelling of the ordi- 
nary forms of words, but he must be able to write the possessive 
forms both singular and plural, comparative forms of adjectives 
and adverbs, tense and personal forms of the verb and other 
variations of the language. 

4. The proper placing of the heading or title, observing to 
leave a margin, indenting paragraphs, right division of words 
at the end of the line, attention to neatness of writing, all com- 
bine to make the difficulties more perplexing. Yet these things 
can not be ignored. 

5. Another of his serious difficulties is to get the right sen- 
tence sense so that he may recognize readily where the sentence 
closes and the new one begins. He must arrange the words in the 
sentence in the order that will give the best effect. After this he 
must put the sentences in the paragraph in such arrangement 
that the result will express properly the ideas it is desired to 
convey. Over and above all, he must find and carry the thought 
as he writes. 

6. A full realization of these difficulties will lead teachers 
to change the manner of giving language training in such a 
way as to reach better results with less overtaxing of the pupil's 
powers. Much of the written work now done is an injury to the 



170 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

child and has no value for the teacher excepting to show where 
the pupil is weakest that the proper steps may be taken to reach 
most directly the defects revealed. Rewriting is not necessarily 
the remedy that should be applied. As in spelling make it rea- 
sonably certain that he can do the work correctly, and then set 
about having it done that way until the right habits are formed. 
Every effort should be made to prevent the pupil from writing 
incorrect papers. 

922. — How to Work, Devices. 

1. The first thing to get out of the way is the difficulty of 
having nothing to say. By means of oral discussion that is in- 
telligible to the class and inspiring so far as possible, the pupil 
should be made to feel himself so full of the thought that he is 
bubbling over, as it were, with desire to express himself. The 
effort should not be, as it too frequently is, to prevent the pupils 
from talking, but rather in all subjects to get them to talk freely, 
but their thought should be guided by judicious questions and 
directions to the most effective ends. It is well to remember 
right here that the thoughts and language used are those of the 
child, and he should not be bothered too much and too persist- 
ently with adult phraseology and the conventional forms of the 
literary world. A conclusion, then, that the thoughtful teacher 
will reach is, that there should be a great deal of oral work to 
precede the written, and that the thought should be so familiar 
to the pupil that he feels himself full of the subject and finds 
thought knocking for expression instead of having to coax it into 
existence through halting, half-formed sentences. 

2. Another means in forming the right habits of expression 
is to be found in the correct copying of standard literature that is 
within the reasonable comprehension of the class. The purpose 



LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 171 

here is to give opportunity to form the habit of doing the me- 
chanical part of written work properly without sacrificing 
thought to the extra burden of its invention while the pupil is 
struggling with the form of expression. Systematic study and 
committing of excellent literary selections should be followed. 

3. Good stories well told will stimulate the thought of the 
pupils, not for reproduction alone, but so that they will be ready 
and anxious to tell and later write out similar stories that they 
have read or that are formed from experiences coming under 
their own observations. Pictures in the language books, in 
readers, in geographies and other books and from the art study 
work and educational journals should be used all the way through 
the grades to arouse and awaken pupils to wish to talk and write. 
A language book issued recently for use in first years of high 
school work has twenty-six pictures in it, either to illustrate the 
thought of selections given, or to be used as stimulants to the 
pupil in his attempts to write. Such use of pictures is to be com- 
mended. 

4. For the written work which is to be the expression of 
thought in the pupil's own language the reading, nature study, 
geography, and history, should furnish abundant materials. Be- 
fore closing this topic a suggestion as to corrections of the lan- 
guage of the pupil, oral and written, is in place. It is but reason- 
able to see that severe criticism will defeat its own purpose in 
making the pupil self-conscious, and thus impeding his thought 
and consequently injuring his language. Suggestions in class in 
the way of criticism should come after the pupil has finished 
speaking. Sometimes the pupil might then repeat the correct 
form for the sake of the language training pure and simple, but 
while he is speaking there should be no sign of recognition of 
incorrect language indicated by teacher or pupils. If possible 



172 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

the pupil should be led to make the correction without the mis- 
take he made being repeated before the class.. Pupils should 
be kept on the alert for mistakes, but they should never repeat 
them but give correct form when offering their criticism. Writ- 
ten work should be properly criticised. At the risk of being mis- 
understood the writer ventures to suggest that there is probably 
as much harm done by over criticism as by under criticism by 
teachers in developing the language of public school pupils. A 
quotation on this line is given from page 224 of "Thinking and 
Learing to Think," a book written by N. C. Schaeffer, Superin- 
tendent of Public Instruction in Pennsylvania. "The current of 
thought is frequently interrupted by drawing attention at the 
wrong time to mistakes in grammar and errors of pronunciation. 
The proper time for such criticism is after the movement of 
thought has reached its goal ; and even then the critic should not 
call attention to too many defects at one time; otherwise the effect 
will be to discourage and bewilder the pupil. The stream of 
thought is the most essential thing in writing, speaking, and oral 
reading." Language cannot be taught effectively as a thing sep- 
arate and apart from the thought which should be under and 
through the form of expression. Improve the thinking and then 
improve the expression by perfecting the essential things first. 

93. — Technical Grammar. 

1. Inductively the language work from third and fourth 
grades up should b? leading into a knowledge of the simple ele- 
ments of the sentence. These are named by their proper terms 
from the first, thus avoiding the necessity of a change in name 
when grammar proper is taken up. In the higher grades it 
should be clearly shown the pupils that it is not the words used 
that are real subjects and predicates, but rather the ideas of which 



LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 173 

these words are the signs. From his own written work the pupil 
should see that he uses words to express ideas that exist in his 
mind, and that the thought he desires to express determines the 
words he chooses and how he shall relate these in his sentence. 
This leads at once to what many teachers fail to have their pupils 
see, viz. : that all parts of speech are put into their proper classes 
through their use in sentences, and that the use of a word in a 
different sense may take it out of its class for a time. The 
teacher who kept an academic dictionary at hand and determined 
disputed points in parsing in his grammar class by the classifica- 
tion there given, certainly failed to have his pupils see this dis- 
tinction in determining how to dispose of individual words as 
found in particular sentences. Very careful thought analysis of 
the sentence will help the learner over this difficulty. Some dia- 
graming is helpful as a device to vary the work, but when it 
becomes the hobby and end in sentence analysis there can scarce- 
ly be a more successful thought killer than it is. 

2. The examination of any good text will show the thought- 
ful person that the author has tried to present difficulties singly. 
Many teachers persist in teaching too much at once. Things 
that should not come for weeks yet are taught because they are 
related. Let the relation look backward instead of forward for 
the pupil. Teach him what is now suggested and when the more 
complete topic is reached call up what you had previously 
taught. Do not try to teach the writing of plurals and the pos- 
sessives in one lump lot. Separate difficulties. Single word 
tenses of the verb should be taught first and then the phrase 
forms built up singly, carefully showing the power and use of the 
auxiliaries used. "Shall" and "will" should once and for all sug- 
gest future time whenever either is seen. "Have" and "had" 
speak of perfect tenses, and "may," "can," "might," "could," say 



174 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

to the eye potential mode. These illustrate some of the difficult 
places over which poor teachers pass too rapidly and lightly. 
Another illustration of demanding non-essentials is to have the 
pupils analyze the entire sentence when the exercise is in the 
early application of his idea of subject and predicate or select- 
ing adjectives, or nouns, or verbs. In such exercises when all 
pupils have books he should not waste time reading sentences 
even but go at once to the point for which he is looking. 

3. Language is the medium for the communication of 
thought. When thought is conveyed to a mind the condition of 
that mind is permanently changed. The language is varied and 
words signifying modifying ideas are employed simply to produce 
a modified condition of the mind to be reached. The funda- 
mental condition in language and grammar teaching is the recog- 
nition that the modification is in the mind addressed and is in 
no sense a modification of the word (excepting in the occasional 
inflected forms) or of the object symbolized by the word. It is 
the concept or product already in the learning mind that is mod- 
ified by the new ideas presented to this mind through the new 
symbols of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs. 

Boat, a boat, the boat, new boat, painted boat, green boat, 
long boat, beautiful boat. There are as many different ideas sug- 
gested to the mind as there are different expressions in the list. 
The word "boat" is not modified. Further, any one of these ex- 
pressions or in different sentences, all of them might be applied 
to an individual boat and the boat itself in every particular re- 
main unchanged. In teaching language and grammar the thing 
to concern the teacher is to have the pupil realize the power and 
function of the word or expression through the modification that 
he recognizes is made in his own mind by its use. Starting from 
this and keeping it in mind without trying to force the pupil to 



LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR. 175 

tell in every particular how he knows, will enable the teacher to 
reach out and lead the class to see "sense" and power in grammar 
where before every thing was arbitrary and uninteresting. Let 
him tell what the sense seems to be to him and then allow him 
to give his idea of the grammatical relation without demanding 
authorities too often. Language and its purpose existed long 
before text books did. It should be taught from its own nature 
instead of having too close reliance put upon the statements of 
the text book in all cases. 



176 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

ORGANIZATION, HANAGE= 
MENT AND DISCIPLINE 

i. 

ORGANIZATION. 



94. — Organization in General. 

No enterprise requiring the co-operation of different per- 
sons or groups of persons can succeed without system. Estab- 
lishing this systematic relation is known as the process of organ- 
ization. The school is an organism with separate parts each con- 
tributing to the purpose for which the school itself is estab- 
lished. The fundamental elements in the school are teacher and 
pupil. It is to bring these into personal contact for the teaching 
and training of the pupil that it as a formal institution exists. 
All other factors in school organization are merely accessory to 
these two and are for their convenience and economic advantage. 
Wherever a learner and a teacher come together, there a school 
exists in a primary sense. School laws, taxes, funds, school offi- 
cers, school property, parents, and superintendents, when not 
teaching, are parts of the organism more or less remote from its 
immediate work, but none the less real and necessary in conse- 
quence of their distance. The immediate parts and those always 
in view are, teacher, pupil, and subject matter or course of study. 
To secure the proper co-operation of all parts near and remote 
requires no small degree of skill and tact. It is from this side 



ORGANIZATION. 177 

of the teacher's or superintendent's efforts that the term "good 
organizer" or "poor organizer' 1 is applied. To organize — to es- 
tablish organs for certain purposes and set them to working 
harmoniously for the good of the entire body — does not lie en- 
tirely within the province of the teacher, but he has much to do 
in stimulating and bringing closer together those already estab- 
lished and in securing the operation of powers lying dormant. 
Visitation days, mothers' meetings and similar efforts are illus- 
trations of this fact. Before leaving this topic the school itself 
as an organ in the larger organism, known as society, demands 
brief mention. In modern thought it is the place and occupation 
set aside to aid home and church in the process of leading child- 
hood and youth from the real boy or girl of the present into the 
ideal manhood or womanhood of the future. To meet the de- 
mands thus created and supply good, law-abiding citizens the 
organization of the school has a function distinctly its own. With- 
in itself it should be such as to train the pupils into habits of 
self control, and respect for rights of others and interest in en- 
forcement of regulations all of which tend to form right ideals 
of life. 

95. — The Organization of the School. 

1. Since the purpose of the school is to bring the teacher 
and pupil into touch in the teaching process most effectively and 
economically, organization must prepare the way for this exer- 
cise. That is the best organized school that offers best oppor- 
tunity for this union of efforts of teacher and pupils. Every act 
of the teacher aside from the actual teaching and much of his 
effort then has to do with organization and its proper preserva- 
tion. Organization seeks to harmonize the elements contribu- 
ting to the school's creation and continued existence. Manage- 



118 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

nient seeks to preserve the organization and keep all parts work- 
ing harmoniously. Discipline concerns itself with the restora- 
tion of the organization when one or more parts persistently 
get out of order and interfere with the proper working of the 
school. It may be an individual or it may be a class or several 
classes that require discipline. There is no intention to assert here 
that these operations have distinct fields that can be clearly 
bounded in all directions so that every act in connection with 
the school can be definitely classified as one of organization, 
management, or discipline purely. It is, however, true that there 
are these distinct phases in the work regardless of the fact that 
they shade into each other on their border lines. Every act of 
school government falls under one of two distinct heads — preser- 
vation of unity in the work or restoration of the harmony when 
the unity has been destroyed. 

2. There are several characteristics that the good organizer 
must have. He must be able to see all the elements entering 
into the problem. Certain things are legally demanded while 
others are not required by law, and still others are not prohibited 
by law and may therefore be introduced into the organization if 
local public sentiment will sanction. Interests of the tax-payers 
are to be considered. No teacher can afford to make large de- 
mands for extras that will cost the district more than is sanctioned 
by the best judgment of sensibly conservative men. Parents 
are interested in the school and their interests should be recog- 
nized and protected. Schools exist for the children and not for 
teachers, and certainly the parents are truly interested in these 
children. The majority of parents are very willing to trust to the 
judgment of teachers, and this trust should be handled with the 
utmost care. The occasional unreasonable parent should not be 
assumed to set the standard for all parents. School officers have 



ORGANIZATION. 179 

a right to consultation and their views should be respected even 
when the personal opinion of the teacher would seem to point 
in another direction. The wise teacher gets his plan into opera- 
tion best by exercising wisdom in self-control and avoiding the 
appearance of too great desire to have the organization all in his 
own hands. On the other hand he must take hold manfully and 
not perplex others about simple little matters of detail that any 
one with reasonable judgment should settle at once. In connec- 
tion with this it may be suggested that tact is a prime character- 
istic here as in all other places. 

3. The organization of the school proper falls a little more 
within the individual powers of the teacher. A good organizer 
sees the end from the beginning. Much of the organization 
is made before the school opens. He knows the conditions of 
the school property, about how many pupils will attend, and 
something as to their proper classification before the first day. 
The appliances for work, such as, crayon, erasers, pointers, dic- 
tionary, charts and other apparatus that may belong to the school 
are prepared before hand. Paper, extra pencils, plat of seating 
of the room are at hand to make the starting propitious. 

4. To organize well the teacher should understand as fully 
as possible about what work is suitable to the various ages and 
grades of children. Very good help can be found for this in 
McMurry's course of study for the eight grades. The course 
in use in the best towns and cities of the country will be 
suggestive but all these will have to be adapted to the conditions 
and needs of the individual locality. It will not do to try to copy 
outright what one has seen done while a pupil himself or the 
work as laid out in some other place. On the other hand that 
teacher is not a good organizer who has no interest in the prin- 
ciples that are found to underlie all the matter that is found in 



180 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

these various sourees. In addition to his recognition of the grade 
of work the pupil can do he should also have some idea of the 
results to be attained in mental developement from the study of 
particular subjects. It is a rare teacher that can look upon all 
subjects impartially and give each the credit it deserves as an in- 
strument in the child's education. Personal tastes and preju- 
dices enter in to such an extent that even when there is an 
apparently rigid course of study there are varying degrees of em- 
phasis put upon different subjects in turn by different teachers. 
In a measure this is an advantage, as it shows the individual 
teacher's strength and preserves her personality, but it also shows 
lack of balanced power of organization and little ability to adapt 
one's self readily to new conditions. To know the mental powers 
and see what subjects contribute most effectively to each will 
help very much in giving proper recognition to the different 
branches and their relations. Teachers have more power here 
than they realize and in their teaching they unconsciously enforce 
that power by the way they do their work rather than by public 
agitations. Any one interested can satisfy nimself on this point 
by calling up in memory his own teachers and recognizing the 
things for which each stands to him. 

5. There are evidences of proper organization that are 
readily recognized. When the organization is good the classifi- 
cation will be such as to insure balanced work. It is not neces- 
sary to have all pupils reciting in all the subjects they study in 
the same class in order to give evidence of good organizing 
power. It is necessary, however, to have the work in each par- 
ticular class in any subject so well balanced that no pupil stands 
far ahead of the average, and that no other may lag behind this 
same average. Balancing the work by breaking over from class 
to class for a time is evidence of a good degree of organizing abil- 



ORGANIZATION. 181 

ity, but the effort should be made for the pupil's proper develop- 
ment to have him push ahead where he is backward and eventu- 
ally have his powers balanced so as to make him as effective as 
possible along all lines of his undertakings. A well organized 
school with study and recitation program in plain view will be a 
good studying school. It is the salvation of the youth of our 
land to have a daily routine of definite duties to engage their at- 
tention with regularly recurring periods of vigorous effort and 
sensible relaxation. When more manual exercises are a part of 
the course of study this condition of good organization may 
more easily be met. What an unfortunate being is that person 
who has never attended school long enough to get into the way 
of useful occupation to such a degree as to form the habit of 
punctuality, regularity, and systematic effort. Not the greatest 
evil to come to the pupil that leaves school early is the loss of 
the facts never learned, but rather it consists in the absence of 
habits that the routine of daily school life would have formed 
in him. The organization of the school has an educational value 
far beyond what is ordinarily supposed by the average person. 
An aimless manhood is the product of an aimless youth and the 
school should cultivate aim and supply regular occupation. A 
well organized school makes use of the influences of systematic 
movements of classes and dismissals. The freer from formalism 
and red tape these can be made and the more completely the 
pupils enter into them from their own wills, the greater their 
educational value. 

6. Out of the organism itself the laws determining what 
shall be the attitude of individuals toward the body of which 
they are a part, must grow. The fundamentals of school gov- 
ernment exist within the school itself, and are not the formu- 
lated rules of school boards and teachers. The teacher is a mere 



182 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

director, moving the various organs of the school, not for his 
own satisfaction or whim, but because of a higher power, the 
law written within the purpose of the school when its organiza- 
tion brought it into existence. It is a mistake for the teacher to 
take the attitude of one dictating a law and enforcing it as one 
outside of his jurisdiction. He is himself subject to that law and 
merely explains and enforces its provisions upon all alike, him- 
self included. This leads to the practical application that if it is 
necessary that pupils should be quiet and not talk or run in halls 
or on stairways, then teachers should not do so. If pupils should 
not whisper with each other and their visitors during working 
time, then teachers should not do so when visitors come into the 
room. If for the interests of the school the pupils should be po- 
lite and respectful to teachers, then teachers should be equally 
polite and thoughtful for the interests and feelings of pupils. 
Pupils should get their lessons, so should teachers. These are 
enough illustrations to point out the fact that the preservation 
of the organization of the school so that it may perform the part 
for which it came into existence is the great aim after the organ- 
ization has once been made. This leatls to the next chapter 
management. 



MANAGEMENT. 183 

II. 

MANAGEMENT. 

96.— Where Management Begins. 

In the full sense this operation of the school begins where 
the organization leaves off. It is not possible, however, to or- 
ganize a school completely and successfully without exercising 
qualities of good management. Likewise it is not within the pro- 
vince of management to get along entirely without the frequent 
re-adjustment of the organization to adapt it to new conditions 
that arise from time to time. Starting with good organization 
perfect management would make the teacher and pupil one in 
the attainment of the purposes of the school. But, even in such 
union of effort and aim, the thought, life and character of the 
teacher must ever be in advance of his pupil. The Great 
Teacher said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Reverently 
the human teacher should seek to become the way, the truth 
that shall lead the pupil out into the life to which he should 
aspire. The pupil thinks the thing or operation, the teacher 
thinks the same thing or operation also, but it is as an experience 
of the past and he adds to this, above the thinking of the pupil, 
the way the pupil thinks and the effects this effort must have 
upon the pupil himself. The way must lie open before the youth- 
ful learner. Truth must have embodiment in something that 
appeals to his intuitions and undeveloped mind. Life must man- 
ifest itself to him in a manner that reaches his personal experi- 
ences. There must be a power that will bring these qualities of 
the teacher into vital touch with the pupil. That one essential 
element is expressed by the common but powerful word — con- 
fidence. 



184 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

J>7.— The Teacher's Starting Point. 

1. The questions of management are present in every 
school exercise, but are most effective when modestly unobtru- 
sive in their operations. They form probably the most serious 
problems of the teacher. Unless one proposes manfully to grasp 
the proposition set before him in this phase of school work he 
should not enter the teacher's realm. A failure here means more 
than the teacher's misfortune. There are the lives of all the pu- 
pils more or less blighted by the evils resulting from misman- 
agement, and when the total is calculated the outcome is quite 
appalling. In relation to what the teacher has as a starting point 
in winning and holding confidence it is probably not too strong 
to say that ninety per cent, or more of the children of the ordi- 
nary school come prepared, so far as intentions go, to co-operate 
with the teacher and the other pupils, the school authorities and 
the community in making a truly successful school. The burden 
of retaining this co-operation and bringing the refractory fac- 
tion into harmony with the law of the school falls almost entirely 
upon the teacher. He must hold what he has and make friends 
and willing helpers of the hesitating and the remnant of openly 
vicious. He is not a martyr to be sacrificed, but an artisan or 
possibly an artist feeling within himself the power to shape and 
be shaped by the movement to and fro as the school machinery 
ever seeks to adjust itself to the varying needs and requirements 
placed upon it by the growing child. Mind shapes mind, charac- 
ter inspires its like. Sunshine brings flowers and ripens fruit. 
Health suggests health and thus removes aches. Smiles awaken 
smiles. Order annihilates chaos. Dawn dispels darkness. So 
does the teacher stand in relation to the school. Unity from di- 
versity is the demand of the school. 

2. The question that confronts the teacher, then, is how to 



MANAGEMENT. 185 

merit, win, and hold his pupil's confidence. There is but one 
word in the answer — masterfulness. He must be the reality as- 
sumed and have power to do earnestly and enthusiastically what 
he attempts to do. There are various ways in which this power 
to win confidence may be attained. 

98. — How Confidence is Won and Retained. 

1. Scholarship is a fundamental element in the winning and 
holding of confidence of pupils, parents and school officers. 

(1). Its first effect is to inspire confidence through absence 
of mistakes and fullness of knowledge of subject matter. Pupils 
believe in the teacher who knows the subject. Uncertainty as 
to what is right, constant reference to the book and other aids 
in recitation time are sure ways to forfeit the confidence of any 
class of pupils. Mistakes in spelling, poor board work and sim- 
ilar evidences of weakness seriously impair the teacher's hold 
upon his classes. Other things may be so strongly in his favor 
that he may succeed in spite of these and similar defects, but the 
burdens thus placed upon these other qualities are likely to be 
more than they can sustain. The study of spelling books and 
dictionaries and the practicing of drawing and penmanship may 
not seem to be in the direct line of school management, but there 
are individuals who would find the reasonable mastery of such 
things the most effective lessons on management that they could 
take. Everybody believes in the person who knows and doesn't 
just "think" it is thus and so. 

(2). The teacher stands before the pupil as the representa- 
tion to that pupil of what the effort to master his studies should 
lead him to become. Good scholarship on the part of the teacher 
impress him with a sense of the sacrifice and effort that teacher 
has made to reach such attainments. This pupil, just as the 



186 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

remainder of us, has confidence in any one who has had the 
hardihood to toil and suffer if need be for the higher good. The 
boy or girl admires such qualities and is thus more ready to fol- 
low the leading of the person having them. 

(3). In the attainment of good academic qualifications the 
teacher should have acquired such a taste for study that fresh 
daily preparation will be a pleasure rather than a task. This 
freshness of knowledge adds to the power in management be- 
cause it proves to the school that they have a growing teacher, 
and the child very much appreciates vigor and life. He believes 
in the growing teacher. 

(4). Teachers with broad and accurate scholarship assign 
lessons better than those who see nothing but the horizon that 
bounds the pupil's view. The pupil may see to the mountain 
top, but he has faith in the teacher who can suggest to him some 
of the beauties in the valley beyond. 

(5). One of the most common criticisms pupils mentally 
make of their teachers is that they can not teach effectively. 
Good scholarship may reasonably overcome this criticism by giv- 
ing the teacher broad powers of illustration. To illustrate well 
requires a wealth of material at command and the power to recog- 
nize when it may be used to advantage. Along with this power 
comes the courage to attempt to illustrate, and classes always 
vote the teacher who makes things live and glow with interest a 
successful leader. 

(6). The teachers whose scholarship is broadest are always 
the most persistent investigators and students. One of the best 
effects to come from these studious habits is the bearing they 
have upon pupils through their unconscious imitative inclina- 
tions. The thoughtfully studious teacher who utilizes spare 
moments in the presence of the school, creates an atmosphere for 



MANAGEMENT. 187 

work that bears forcibly upon the question of securing a work- 
ing school. A working school is a well managed one. 

(7). The community employs the teacher first and above 
all for the purpose of having a successful school. This they can 
not have without a growing teacher. By study and a modest 
manifestation of his scholarship his influence reaches beyond the 
school room, and he receives the co-operation of parents through 
his earnest devotion to the interests for which he is employed. 
He should not become a musty book-worm, but he can not, on 
the other hand, be a society leader or a manipulator of political 
machines and do his work properly. Parents believe in the 
teacher who has most thorough scholarship if with that he has the 
good sound sense that should accompany such scholarship. 

(8). With good intellectual attainments there comes, or 
should come, a breadth of view that enables one to take a broad 
and generous outlook on all questions relating to school policies. 
Narrow views never result in management that has educational 
value in it. A spirit of respect for the opinions and desires of 
others, and at the same time a manner born of conviction of the 
correctness of one's own course is a result of proper scholarship, 
and this spirit never fails to command the respect of others and to 
secure a fair measure, at least, of their co-operation. 

2. Sensible class tactics and superior teaching ability and 
devices win confidence. 

(1). There is no set of signals that is appropriate to all 
grades and all arrangements of furniture alike. The teacher must 
adopt, adapt, and use such as reach the desired end with least 
interference with the other operations of the school. Moving 
classes to the board, to recitation seats, and back to places gives 
opportunity for the teacher to show skill in management. Signals 
should be few, clearly given, and followed in concert by all con- 



188 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

cerned. The teacher's voice is the best instrument for this, but 
even that need not always be used, for at times the eyes of all 
should be on the teacher, then a motion of the hand will do. 
Precision is valuable when used as a means in making these 
movements, but it should be a means only and not carried over 
into useless drills for the sake of the show it will make. Pupils 
should remain seated until the teacher has decided exactly how 
the movements are to be made and given the proper directions. 
This makes all movements orderly and impresses the class that 
the teacher understands what she is attempting. 

(2). In recitation the class should be seated so that work 
can be directed quietly and effectively. This requires compact 
arrangement with no vacant seats to destroy the unity. The 
thinking of all is to be directed to one point. This is best secured 
when all are close together so that the teacher may pass the 
directions and questions quickly from one to the other. A com- 
pact arrangements affords easy view for teacher to see signs of 
wandering attention and disorder and broken unity may thus be 
restored at once. United work and thinking right here help 
very much to secure orderly work at other times. If united 
attention can be secured in no other way a little extra written 
work may be given when signs of inattention begin to appear. 

(3). The mariner who allows his vessel to drift at will is no 
more worthy of condemnation than the teacher who sees no 
definite point to be reached in the recitation hour. At such times 
the class, sometimes consciously and sometimes unconsciously, 
takes charge of the recitation and disorder rules, or it is prevented 
by external means, such as threats and punishments. Pupils will 
have no confidence in a teacher who does not impress them that 
he knows the end to be reached. 

(4.) Essential points must be given due prominence. Wast- 



MANAGEMENT. 189 

ing time on non-essentials or the less essential things destroys 
unity. Pupils do not learn to look for fundamentals, and thus 
think very carelessly while studying. Careless thinking means 
divided attention and this brings bountiful opportunities for dis- 
order at all times. 

(5.) Making too little use of former knowledge and experi- 
ence in comparison in fixing new ideas gives a disorderly arrange- 
ment of facts in the pupil's mind. His mind being in a chaotic 
condition in this respect fits him for disorderly conduct in other 
particulars. Clear, clean-cut comparisons, drills and applications 
give evidence of power on the part of the teacher that will insure 
confidence and command respectful attention and the united ef- 
fort of the class. 

(G.) The teacher who can devise, make, and use simple illus- 
trative matter has another powerful means of winning control 
of the school. All the world believes in the person who does 
something, although it is not always as careful as it should be in 
selecting the things done, upon which it bestows its admiration. 
The time spent out of school in devising and making apparatus 
repays many times more than most teachers suspect in dividends 
of power to hold and manage a troublesome pupil or class. 

(7.) Telling the pupil that the recitation has resulted in some 
good to him will not be likely to reach him in a way that will 
inspire renewed effort when he returns to his seat to study. 
Having the class collect carefully the points made insures a 
respect for the work and a confidence in the teaching that make 
the pupil follow the guidance of the teacher unhesitatingly in 
school duties where he can not see results so clearly. 

3. Confidence is secured and held by means of cultivated 
and accurate senses. 

(1). The eye should see not only quickly but accurately. 



190 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

There must be a mind back of it that measures exactly the 
meaning of what is seen and be able to determine a line of oper- 
ation to meet the conditions suggested. The eye must be trained 
to see all pupils in the ordinary school room at a single glance. 
Not as the police officer necessarily sees, but to prevent, warn, 
and guide and finally detect. Also the eye of the teacher should 
be able to measure more accurately, and discriminate more 
closely than that of any pupil. It should show its cultivation in 
what it says so that pupils may read the power back of it. 

(2). An ear free from all defects is also a primary essential 
in good government. It must not only hear accurately but must 
also interpret correctly. Innocent noise incident to work has a 
hum that is different in its character from that of the things that 
tell of mischief afoot. The tone of voice in which a pupil answers 
often furnishes the wide awake teacher with the clue by which 
he may be successfully reached. Sounds and signs require sen- 
sible interpretation at the hands of the teacher. 

4. Reasonable determination and a well balanced judg- 
ment secure confidence. Vacillation is the ruin of all govern- 
ment. Stubbornness is equally as bad. The golden mean is 
what the teacher must find if he would succeed. Firm, even, 
balanced control, day in and day out, is another very important 
element in good government. A calm, well poised discrimina- 
tion that sees all sides of a question with reasonable alacrity, and 
is then able to determine a line of action that any thinking person 
would say was just and right, is a quality beyond estimation 
in value for the teacher who would manage well. A well balanced 
power of judgment implies the ability to see acts and motives in 
proper perspective. It tells what is innocent and what is crim- 
inal, what must be looked after at once and what may well be 



MANAGEMENT. 191 

ignored. It suggests severity here and a mere word of caution 
there. It adjusts means exactly to the end to be reached. 

5. Force of character and large heart power always win 
confidence. 

(1). Character is the resultant of all past life plus the motives 
of the present day and moment. The teacher who is uncertain 
on moral questions as viewed by society in general is sure to be 
of little service to her pupils as a lasting force in leading them to 
overcome their weaknesses. A character protected and shielded 
from the pollution of the petty meannesses of life by its own 
inherent power, so that it dispels the poisons bred of low ideals 
as the sun drives away the miasma of the marsh and puts there 
instead flowers and golden grain, is beyond calculation in value 
as a power in proper control. 

(2). Likewise to feel that a great kind heart is beating in 
sympathy with his noble impulses, while a keen judgment and a 
firm hand are detecting and dealing with his wrong doing and 
duplicity, lifts the ordinary pupil to a higher plane of living than 
he has been accustomed to occupy. Respect for the person and 
rights of the most unattractive pupil is not born of sentimenta- 
lism. Love and justice are not incompatible; but hate and 
justice are. The criminal may deserve all the punishment he 
gets, but the undeveloped child does not get all the sympathy 
he deserves. Heart power that enables its possessor to bury 
himself in devotion to an unpromising pupil will reap a hundred- 
fold harvest in the lives of the promising ones while doing some- 
thing for those of less promise. "Faith, Hope, Charity, these 
three; but the greatest of these is Charity." 



192 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

III. 

DISCIPLINE. 

J)D. — Its Relation to Management. 

Careful organization and wise and considerate management 
reduce the cases of actual need of discipline to the very lowest 
terms. But even with these well in hand there will be cases de- 
manding special treatment because of the injury to the school 
and because the individual does not respond to the effects of 
ordinary good management. There are always a few in the 
school, as in the larger community outside, who must have the 
"law as their schoolmaster." Organization and management re- 
quire that there shall be some regulation, and discipline steps 
in to help enforce those regulations when infractions occur. 
These rules should not be in the nature of "do not" so much 
as guides as to what is the right thing to do. They have more 
of the nature of explanations of the self-imposed law of the 
school through its own organization than that of prohibitions 
with stated fixed penalties for all offences. The good dis- 
ciplinarian avoids the compromising position of having prie defi- 
nite and fixed punishment for all offenders. The same wrong- 
act may be committed by several different pupils and each case 
reached most effectively and justly by widely separated means 
of restraint or punishment. In fact one may merit no punish- 
ment at all when another might deserve the inflection of positive 
pain of some nature. 



DISCIPLINE. 193 

100. — Why Pupils Injure the Schools. 

1. It is reasonable to say that the majority of disturbances 
that interfere with the good work of the school are due to child- 
ish thoughtlessness and lack of training and developed judg- 
ment. Since this is true the means used to bring about right 
conditions should be of the nature of management rather than 
that of discipline. Noisy walking and talking in the halls, dis- 
order in moving in the room and in handling books, forgetting 
to sharpen pencils at the proper time, and similar causes of 
disturbance are generally due to thoughtlessness and careless- 
ness. The teacher should always be charitable here, remember- 
ing his own short comings due to the same causes, but he must 
manage to reduce the thoughtlessness and when carelessness 
verges on the criminal kind it must be met with suggestive dis- 
ciplinary measures. To detect what is due to the unthinking acts 
of childhood and youth and deal accordingly is by no means a 
small problem. It takes time to form habits, and too severe 
measures here will defeat their supposed purpose. 

2. The disposition to try the teacher is another common 
source of misbehavior on the part of pupils. This may be a 
good natured sort of test and one that is ready at once to yield 
to the powers and qualities of the teacher mentioned under the 
discussion of management.. If this be true the wise teacher re- 
moves it without any apparent notice. A second phase of the 
question, however, is the persistent determination to annoy and 
disturb for the sake of personal gratification or feelings of law- 
lessness, or to see how much the teacher will wince under the 
treatment. The causes for this may be entirely outside the 
school. The beginnings of such behavior are usually from out- 
side in the sense that they may come with the pupil from home 
surroundings, the influence of the street or from prejudices and 



194 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

evil feeling from past terms of school. If such should be the 
case wise management will succeed within a few weeks in break- 
ing down the pupil's disposition to misbehavior unless his is a 
case of confirmed evil doing from habit and lack of ideals. In 
such circumstances a firm and positive stand in the way of dis- 
ciplinary matters is necessary on the part of the teacher. A hint 
is given here that in dealing with experiences of this kind the 
teacher should look to his own acts, characteristics and manage- 
ment very carefully to see if it may not be possible that some, 
at least, of the trouble may be due to his personality and way of 
doing things. At the last, it must be met, and after the teacher 
has determined calmly that the causes are not to be found in 
himself it is his duty to set about quietly but firmly and with all 
determination of success to bring the pupil over to the side of 
the law-abiding members of the school. If management pure 
and simple can not reach the difficulty, then measures of discip- 
line must be the resort. One caution is necessary here, and that 
is, that the pupil's offense should not be put in the light of a 
personal one against the teacher. The teacher is a member of 
the school, and as such he is injured with the other individuals 
of the school, but it is a mistake to make the crime to be one 
of personal injury to the teacher. All misdemeanors regardless 
of the person at whom they may be aimed, result eventually in 
injury of the school and should be treated accordingly in cor- 
rection. All teachers by thinking carefully what the purpose of 
the school is, and what conditions will bring about most effective- 
ly the realization of that purpose, can determine what should 
not and what should be done in school. After recognizing these 
detrimental occurrences the serious problem is to see which can 
be reached by tact and management and which must have dis- 
ciplinary treatment. It is a safe rule to give, however, thai an 
ounce of management is zvorth a pound of discipline. 



DISCIPLINE. 195 

101. — Qualities and Personal Characteristics of the Good 
Disciplinarian. 

1. Self control is a quality that stands in the very front rank 
as a characteristic of a good disciplinarian. It shows itself in 
bearing in general, and the calmness and perfect poise main- 
tained when the most trying things happen. That teacher is very 
fortunate who can preserve a perfectly calm manner at all times. 
Next to him is the one who can keep a calm exterior even though 
deeply disturbed within. 

2. Sympathy with childhood is essential for one who would 
have strong control. Entering heartily into the motives and 
sentiments of children is essential to him who would give his 
discipline educational value. Imaginative power of the "put- 
yourself-in-my-place" quality is worthy of constant cultivation. 

3. Self-sacrifice as a principle in the life of the teacher 
always wins the respect and confidence of pupils. It is not 
necessary to over work one's self and break his health to show 
self sacrifice. It is not so much in the amount of extra trouble 
one assumes for the sake of others as it is in the manner with 
which all duties are performed, that this quality shows itself. It 
is devotion to duty without anxiety as to the personal advantage 
that may come from the course of action. 

4. "Cowards die many times before their deaths." This is 
true of the teacher who is afraid to approach manfully the ques- 
tions of school discipline. Some pupils may be offended, but it 
is better to be the cause of offence to some people when one's 
cause is right, than to be a coward and lose his self respect. It is 
not meant that in order to give evidence of courage one must 
loudly and ostentatiously attack every evil he can find, but it does 
mean that when an evil is preying upon the best interests of the 
school the teacher with all tact and good judgment at command 



196 THE TEACHER AT JJ'ORK. 

should grapple with it, firmly believing that his side will win 
in the end. There are two forms of cowardice neither of which 
is becoming to a teacher. The one quietly submits and allows 
things improper to proceed unmolested. The other whistles and 
shouts as a boy trying to keep up courage in the dark, and like 
the boy runs away at the first suggestion of danger. Real 
courage acts quietly but it resolutely faces the "lion in the way" 
which may make some show of resistance but in the end he 
slinks away and is seen no more. 

5. Closely allied to the proper degree of courage is a keen 
sense of justice. Pupils readily acquiesce in events when a fel- 
low pupil has met punishment that they feel is just. Generally 
in the school of reasonably proper spirit there is a fair ideal 
of justice toward which all look. The teacher who seems ever 
to hold this ideal above personal satisfaction has the support of 
the majority of the pupils at all times. 

6. Sensible and sympathetic regard for the rights and feel- 
ings of others is an essential in good discipline. Nothing appeals 
more strongly to the boy or girl than the feeling that the teacher's 
justice is tempered with mercy. The weight of punishment is 
removed early enough to prove conclusively to the pupil that it 
was for his good and that of the school that it was inflicted in- 
stead of its being done to satisfy a personal evil feeling of the 
teacher. 

7. The ability to appreciate the humorous side of really 
amusing things and the dignity that permits the teacher to join 
with propriety in the resulting laughter is a matter worthy the 
cultivation of more teachers. Children are natural humorists 
and swing readily from tears to smiles, and the teacher who 
would discipline well must be quick to take advantage of these 
tendencies. 



DISCIPLINE. 197 

8. Appreciation of the efforts of pupils should find means 
of expression. Most people think they have done enough if 
they avoid saying unpleasant things to others. The teacher 
should watch for opportunity to commend wisely. Good pupils 
deserve more attention than they get. The wayward can be 
helped by honest commendation of the efforts they make even 
though they may not be so successful as the teacher may desire. 
This must all be done adroitly and with such sincerity that all 
appearance of flattery with a selfish motive may be avoided. 

9. The power of a strong personality is very helpful in dis- 
cipline, but with it there lies a danger that some such teachers 
fail to appreciate. This power is frequently used to secure right 
conduct as a favor to the teacher which is an incentive that will 
leave the pupil and school in bad condition when the teacher 
leaves. In fact it is in bad condition while he is with it for he 
is the one around whom right motives cluster instead of being- 
established on the good of the school. In the end the discipline 
is not of proper kind because it is based on the personal popu- 
larity of the teacher rather than proper motives of self control. 

10. A reputation for certainty of punishment rather than 
swiftness or severity is a prime characteristic. That the treat- 
ment his misdemeanor deserves is sure to be meted out to him 
is one of the best preventives that can come to the notice of any 
child. 

11. A good disciplinarian is sensibly optimistic, for in that 
way he puts the best interpretation upon all acts of pupils and 
thus is more sure of dealing justly. He takes a large view and 
has large faith in the ultimate success of what is right. 

12. Steadiness, firmness, vigilance, dignity, politeness, say- 
ing little and doing much are qualities that can be mentioned 
as important, but there is not space to enter into a discussion 



198 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

of them. These are not all, but they are suggestive of things that 
the individual teacher may find it profitable to cultivate within 
himself. 

102. — Evidences of the Need of Discipline. 

1. General disorder is an evidence of poor discipline. This 
manifests itself on the playground, in halls, through general man- 
ners of pupils and by attitudes assumed in studying and reciting. 

2. Poor lessons give evidence of too great laxity in discip- 
line. Restraint of the chronic wrong doer is necessary or his ail- 
ment spreads so as to result in poor lessons in all the class. 
When poor lessons occur and the teacher has manifested the 
powers suggested in management then it must be that some 
pupil or pupils are working against the interests of the class, 
and when that is true discipline must take charge of them. 

3. Disobedience is a very positive evidence of want of dis- 
cipline. The teaeher has no right to desire to be obeyed simply 
because he is in authority for the time. As the interpreter of the 
law of the school he must have obedience to that law. Too 
often obedience is expected and demanded because of the feel- 
ing of authority, power, rank, infallibility of judgment of the 
teacher. These are exterior influences and have little in them 
to arouse in pupils a desire to obey willingly. Willing obedience 
is the kind that should be secured, but if individuals persist in 
disobeying the reasonable requirements that the good of the 
school demands, then they must obey because of higher outside 
power. 

4. Insolence is the final school sin since it is the exhibition 
of all loss of self respect and of interest in the good name and 
proper success of the school. It has the spirit and hopelessness 



DISCIPLINE. 199 

of anarchy in it. It must be rooted out at once or its deadly 
poison will permeate the vital organs of the entire school. 

103. — Means and Methods of Discipline. 

The pupil should be led to see wherein his acts are detri- 
mental to the best interests of the school. When he sees this 
and promises to reform he should be given another trial. Con- 
tinued failure to improve, however, makes him a culprit before 
the law of the school. If he does not respond to warning, to 
private reproof and admonition a more public notice must be 
given to his acts. This must be managed so that the pre- 
ponderance of public sentiment of the school will be on the side 
of law and order. That makes it necessary for the teacher 
to manifest many of the qualities mentioned on a former page. 
One very fair and useful means for giving larger publicity to the 
pupil's agreements and promises of reform, when it becomes 
necessary, is through a written paper of simple questions and 
answers which gradually lead to such admission of wrong doing 
as the pupil is willing to make and which also contains such 
pledge as he consents to make after he has thought it all out 
carefully. Let him work out these problems. If he makes 
promises and persistently violates them he should agree that his 
classmates may be apprised of what has been done for him 
and let them judge as to how well he has kept his side of the 
agreement. At first these consultations are not real punishments 
but eventually they may thus be made so, not to humiliate but 
to give the school opportunity to see that justice and other 
right principles of discipline have been observed and let proper 
censure thus fall upon him as a disloyal member of his school. 
Here comes the principle of all sending home for the day, sus- 
pension and a final expulsion if that ever should become neces- 



200 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

sary. Expulsion is a last resort, however. Sensible corporal pun- 
ishment should be used below the high school if there is any 
hope that it will reach the desired end before expulsion is put 
into effect. When privileges are abused deprivation for a time 
is the necessary course. This makes it admissible at times to 
detain the pupil and give him a recess by himself. He may re- 
main for a time after school because of misbehavior when going 
home with others. He may remain to finish neglected work. 
It is not wise to keep after school and set tasks to be studied 
as punishments for misdemeanors of the schoolroom, such as 
whispering and so forth. He may be detained a short time for 
private consultation and reproof for such things. All punish- 
ments should grow as naturally as possible out of the nature 
of the offence and be justly proportional to the intention with- 
in the misdeed. Punishments that unduly humiliate or that en- 
danger the body or health in any way should be avoided. 
Teachers should not be too anxious to see effects of weeping and 
similar emotional manifestations, as determining to secure them 
may result in undue severity. Also it savors a little of the idea 
of punishment for the satisfaction of the teacher and not for the 
good of the school and pupil. So far as possible pupils should 
be led to see and admit the fairness of what is done. General 
suggestions of things to be avoided may be made effectively to 
whole school or classes if done in proper spirit, but consultation 
for correction of misdemeanors would better be with individuals 
rather than groups. So far as possible pupils should not be sent 
away angry. But if this can not be avoided let the teacher do 
his duty and wait for time to show the pupil the justice and ne- 
cessitv of the course his teacher took. No kinds of punishment 
should be used habitually. They should vary. Not the same for 
all pupils, not the same for all offences, not even the same for 



DISCIPLINE. 201 

one particular pupil with the same or different misdemeanors 
should be the teacher's rule. A candidate for a teacher's certifi- 
cate in an Iowa county in writing on a question in didactics re- 
cently said, "I have never taught, but this is the way I would see 
it as a pupil." In determining means and severity of punishment 
many times the teacher should see it not from the teacher's 
standpoint but from that of the sensible and fair-minded pupil 
and justice will be done. All misdemeanors are against the 
school, none should be interpreted as really against the teacher 
personally. 

104. — The Quotation as a Factor in Discipline. 

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of 
silver." In accordance with this thought the quotation is very 
helpful in dealing with many cases in the course of a busy day 
in school. One of the first duties of the school is to impress the 
importance of a spirit of helpfulness. This is a part of manage- 
ment and discipline and cannot be reached without realization on 
the part of the pupil of the rights of others and his own duties in 
respect to those rights. He must be able to look upon his rela- 
tions to others from the position of that other person. The 
quotations that apply most readily to this general view of his du- 
ties are the familiar words from the scripture: "Whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you do ye even so to them." 'Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The thought expressed in 
these texts must get into the life of the pupil, not as sentiment, 
but as living principles, before he is in condition to do fully his 
part as an orderly member of the school. A little couplet that 
comes nearer the child's feelings with the same thought is, "Be 
kind in all you say and do, that others may be kind to you." 

This may seem to get at the principle through inherent 



202 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

selfishness, but it is the concrete in morals that he must have, as 
he must have it in intellectual things, before he sees clearly what 
his own interests, as well as those of others, demand of him. 
When he arrives at an age that he may see that the injury of one 
in the school community, or in the larger unit of society in gen- 
eral, means the injury of all, he can more readily do his whole 
duty on such questions without the incentive of an immediate 
return to come to himself. When he is able to see that mobbing 
a criminal lowers the standard of civilization for every man of 
the time he will need no appeals to his immediate interests to 
lead him in the right way. 

Aside from the general spirit of helpfulness that should be 
a fundamental in all efforts at government there are specific 
kinds of infractions of the unity of work that need attention and 
that may often be reached most effectively by means of a trite 
sentence that appeals to the better judgment of the pupil. Tardi- 
ness, idleness, thoughtlessness, impoliteness, low or imperfect 
ideals, bad habits and kindred topics can be handled in a tactful 
way by this means with the very best of results in many cases. 
The besetting difficulties of certain individuals may be touched 
without offending, by class or teacher at the opportune time 
quoting a thought that is exactly suited to the difficulty at hand. 

A few quotations are given as illustrations. Tardiness: 
"Method is the very hinge of business, and there is no method 
without punctuality." — Hannah More. "Lost time is never found 
again, and what we call time enough, always proves little enough." 
— Benj. Franklin. "Time loiters not." — Bailey. Idleness: "Be 
ashamed to catch yourself idle." — Anon. "The devil goes for 
the busy but the idle meet him half way." — Carlvle. "Do not 
undertake the dreadful drudgery of being an idler." — Victor Hugo. 
Politeness: "Politeness is to do and say the kindest things in 



DISCIPLINE. 203 

the kindest way."— Anon. "True politeness is perfect ease and 
freedom. It simply consists in treating others as you love to be 
treated yourself."— Chesterfield. "You can always discover a 
true gentleman by his address."— James Ellis. "Never interrupt 
another when he is speaking."— Washington. 

A miscellaneous list is given from which selections for vari- 
ous occasions or dispositions may be chosen. The first is a con- 
cluding stanza from one of Phoebe Cary's poems. 

For he who always does his best, 
His best will better grow; 
But he who shirks or slights his task, 
He lets the better go. 

"He overcomes a stout enemy that overcomes his own an- 
ger." — Chilo. 

"Let's have heads that think and hearts that beat."— Spur- 
geon. 

"Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well." — 
Chesterfield. 

"Kindness is the golden chain by which society is bound to- 
gether." — Goethe. 

"Dare to do right, dare to be true, 

The failings of others can never save you." — Wilson. 

"The fisher who draws in his net too soon; 
Won't have any fish to sell; 
The child who shuts up his book too soon, 
Won't learn any lesson well." — Swan. 

Grumblers never work, and workers never grumble."— Spur- 
geon. 



204 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

"They never taste who always drink; 

They always talk who never think." — Matthew Prior. 

Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, 
Much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found." — Pope. 

"Tongues are like race horses, the lighter they are loaded 
the faster they run." — Bishop Butler. 

'The empty cask makes more noise in rolling than a full 
one." 

"Think for thyself, one good idea, 

But known to be thy own, 
Is better than a thousand gleaned 

From fields by others sown." — Wilson. 

"Waste not moments, no nor words, 

In telling what you could do 
Some other time; the present is 

For doing what you should do." — Phoebe Carey. 

"Silence is one great art of conversation." — Hazlitt. 

"Laziness grows on people; it begins in cobwebs and ends 
in iron chains." — Sir Matthew Hale. 

"Better than gold is a thinking mind." — Alex Smart. 
"It is not enough to have a sound mind; the principal thing 
is to make a good use of it." — Descartes. 

"At every trifle scorn to take offence, 

That always shows great pride or little sense." — Pope. 

"A man of evil intentions easily believeth the worst." — Anon. 

"A man's success in life depends more upon his character 
than upon his talents or his genius." — Anon. 



DISCIPLINE. 205 

"The strength of a man's life is equal only to the strength 
of the weakest hour." — Rev. Thos. Dixon. 

"Never accuse another to excuse yourself." "Politeness is 
the outward garment of good will." "Bad manners are a species 
of bad morals." "A person good at making excuses is seldom 
good at anything else." "A still tongue makes a wise head." 

The thoughtful teacher will find opportunity to use such 
quotations and many others probably more applicable to her 
special school needs. They become concrete and full of meaning 
to the pupil when repeated just at the time they are most suitable. 
He then has the experience uppermost that is necessary for a full 
understanding of the sentiment. To illustrate: A boy given to 
asking for too much help can be reached by class quoting, "Think 
for thyself," etc., when he is making his request for help. A class 
given to talking too much and on irrelevant points may have the 
Bishop Butler quotation, "Tongues are like race horses, the light- 
er they are loaded the faster they run." These should never be 
given in a tone of sarcasm. 

One great advantage in their use is that it takes out nearly 
all the elements of personal rebuke by the teacher when the class 
or teacher quote the words of another in the right tone. They 
should be committed by all and named or numbered so that it is 
easy to refer to them. The practice of committing and reciting 
in concert at opening exercises or odd moments is an excellent 
means of getting a body of helpful thoughts into the minds of the 
pupils. In private correction the teacher may use them effect- 
ively. Not everything committed should be intended for the 
purpose of discipline, but the sentiment should be good and should 
contribute indirectly to the good of the pupil and that of the 
school. A result in no way to be overlooked is the effect such a 



206 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

course has upon the teacher. To correct with good results by 
quoting a noble sentiment requires the teacher to embody that 
sentiment in her life. Measure your daily life by some of the good 
quotations you find and thus see if you dare use them. 

105. — Democratic or Cooperative School Government. 

(A day in John Crerar school, (Chicago).) 

1. The Plan. — Progressive teachers are interested in any 
movement that promises better men and women as a result of the 
education obtained in childhood in the public schools. With equal 
unanimity all agree that there are lessons to be learned that are 
not directly found in the subjects laid down in the course of study. 
In the organization and management of the school itself many of 
the most important lessons for the embryo citizen may be im- 
pressed. The John Crerar public school on the west side in 
Chicago is one of the places in which an intelligent attempt has 
been made for several years to enlist the interests and sympathies 
of the pupils from the primary through the grammar grades in 
the good order, good name, and civic responsibilities that should 
naturally belong to the miniature democracy, or at least semi- 
democracy, that a public school should be. The devices used 
and the steps taken to put the plan in operation can not be ex- 
plained here for want of space, but any one interested and not 
familiar with these features can get information as to where mat- 
ter relating to them may be obtained by writing to Prin. John T. 
Ray, of the Crerar school. The purpose of this discussion is to 
report some observations and record a few impressions with a 
limited number of what seem reasonable conclusions from what 
the day's visit furnished. 

2. Halls and Playrooms. — On alighting from the car within 
a block of the school building at a few minutes of nine one morn 



DISCIPLINE. 207 

ing the writer had no adequate idea of what he should expect to 
see as he came nearer the school. There were pupils coming 
from various directions but all disappeared within the building 
through the several doors without appearance of teachers to 
form lines or to take charge in any visible manner. When fully 
inside a few pupils were seen going quietly to their rooms, but 
still there were no teachers to be seen in schoolroom doorways 
or the lower hall. The principal's office was found and a small 
boy present politely stated that Mr. Ray had not come yet, or at 
least he had not seen him. It seemed a little strange that a 
great school of seven hundred pupils of primary and grammar 
grades should be distributed in the building so quietly and with- 
out a principal in evidence any where. It may be told here, par- 
enthetically, that the principal was away on business at the rooms 
of the school board in another part of the city, and that he did not 
return until well toward the close of the school day. While he is 
a very genial man and one that a visitor regrets not to find about 
the building, on this particular day the purpose was answered even 
better by his absence than his presence for the greater part of the 
time. With such an opportunity one could spend the time in the 
play rooms, about the halls, and in viewing the general workings 
of the system without any feeling that possibly the presence of 
the principal with him might explain in some degree the conditions 
tnat were seen. 

In the playrooms of the boys at recess there was vigorous 
playing going on, but with the very best of spirit without a 
teacher in supervision. A visitor mingling among them was in no 
way made to feel uncomfortable, nor in fact did he seem to be 
noticed. When a boy was addressed by the visitor he responded 
respectfully and then a group would probably form to enter into 
conversation. All replies to questions were made in a manly 



208 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

and frank manner. A breaking up of the group by some leaving 
led to the remark that possibly we were detaining them and one 
replied that the tribune had said that it was time to go and all 
quietly took places in line on the stairway and returned in good 
order to their respective rooms. One boy said, "We are from 
the sixth grade, room three, won't you visit our room?" He had 
a manifest pride in his school and seemed to express in words 
what many others felt but did not reduce to formal utterance. The 
playroom order could not help impressing one. The spirit of 
friendliness and good will that was evident removed so thoroughly 
the thought of his being a stranger that one could feel his boy- 
hood blood racing through his veins making him wish for the 
backward flight of time that he might be one of them again and 
have just one more romp with the boys. Good boyhood ideals 
seemed clearly discernable in the playrooms. 

3. Teachers, halls, and schoolrooms. — The teachers, too, 
seemed to have a recess. A number gathered about a table in 
one of the wide halls and had opportunity for rest and a few 
minutes of relief from the active schoolroom duties. These teach- 
ers did not seem to be looking after the halls, and in fact there 
was evidence that the pupils did not rely on them for guidance 
as to their own acts. There seemed to be one teacher on duty. 
but rather as referee or an adviser that could readily be found 
should anything out of the ordinary happen, than acting in the 
capacity of an officer of the day looking after lines of marchers. 
In the ordinary occupations of the school, in most cases, there was 
such a spirit about the rooms that one could easily notice the 
absence of the nerve-straining high tension under which so many 
schools are conducted and on account of which strain so many 
teachers break down. The voices and manner of teachers and 
pupils revealed a decidedly good feeling in general, especially 



DISCIPLINE. 209 

when numbers and elements which must be present and might 
be troublesome are taken into consideration. One room visited 
gave a good opportunity to see what pupils would do in the 
absence of the teacher. The work in drawing had scarcely well 
started when the teacher was called from the room and detained 
ten, or possibly fifteen minutes, and in that time there was not 
a movement that would indicate anything that would not have been 
allowable in the presence of the teacher. There is no doubt that 
there are individual teachers working in other schools who have 
such influence over the school that a similar example of faithful- 
ness would be manifested on such an occasion, but unmistakable 
evidences and a few words of testimony from the principal give 
assurance that this is not so rare a thing there as in most large 
schools. 

4. Dismissals. — At the end of the sessions the hall manipu- 
lations were in the hands of pupils and the building was emptied 
in a very short time in an orderly manner. The lines may not 
have had the military precision or the measured tread so dear 
to the hearts of some authorities, but the children passed quietly 
and in good order, but with a childlike naturalness that was 
pleasant to see. The power animating and controlling these 
activities was so fully concealed and yet so actively at work that it 
was worth a great deal of effort to see this part of the school day 
alone. It was not the movement of dead machinery impelled 
from without but the activity of a living organism moving through 
the power of a right motive force within. It was not icy form- 
alism but organized life. At the close of the day's session some 
of the pupils loitered about some fresh school work that had been 
posted on a bulletin screen standing in the hall for that purpose. 
They had such an "at-home-air" that it did one good to watch 
them and realize that there is a power of self control in the average 



210 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

child if he is touched along the right interests of his life. The 
behavior of the children towards strangers and those passing on 
the streets was another noticeable feature of the school. We were 
told that very little trouble of this kind occurs and that the teach- 
ers are always treated with kindness and consideration on the 
street by the pupils. The atmosphere in and about the school 
was far more congenial and pleasant than it is found to be in many 
schools, possibly one should say in most schools. 

5. Not "soft" government. — The use of the term "pupil 
government," in connection with these efforts has created a 
wrong impression in some localities. In fact, at present there 
seems to be an effort on the part of the advocates of the move- 
ment to remove the misunderstanding by use of the expressions, 
"democratic," or "co-operative," government. As one sees the 
workings of the system in this school he can plainly discern that 
it is not a government — or absence of government as would be 
the result — by throwing the entire control into the hands of un- 
developed boys and girls through a system of election, assem- 
blies, courts and the like. Such a course would probably beget 
anarchy from which would result tyranny before order could be 
restored. The plan is rather the employment of organized 
motives and sentiments of the best disposed pupils in getting their 
hearty co-operation in the organization and management of the 
school. The pupils, teachers, and principal unite in a plan where- 
by those well disposed and willing to exercise proper self con- 
trol may have special privileges for themselves, or more properly, 
may have freedom from restrictions imposed from the outside so 
long as they take themselves in hand properly and take no ad- 
vantage or abuse no privileges that will injure the school, includ- 
ing children, teachers and patrons. Ordinarily the pupil feels 
that so long as the teacher does not tell him he must not do a 



DISCIPLINE. . 211 

thing no matter what his own judgment would suggest to him 
to be the right thing to do, he is perfectly free to persevere in 
the wrong course. He gives his judgment and conscience over 
into the keeping of another and he takes no responsibility upon 
himself for his acts, but expects the teacher to catch him and 
then to tell him what he must do. In a decided degree the Cre- 
rar school seems to break down the idea that the pupil should 
take no responsibility for himself and his companions as to the 
conduct in and about the school. There is a healthy sentiment 
against law breaking and law breakers and a disposition to see 
that wrong is made right and that the wrong doer is warned and 
brought to justice. 

In order to illustrate that the difficulties are not all removed 
by this plan (as no one acquainted with its workings asserts is 
true) and that the man at the head stands for something positive 
and is exerting his influence to bring right results, two incidents 
that occurred at the close of the day in the principal's office are 
related. A father came in to see about some difficulty that the 
school and he were trying to work out with respect to his boy. 
The statement was kindly but frankly made to him that his boy 
was troublesome and that he could not be allowed to go on in the 
course he was taking. It was agreed that the boy must behave 
and that school and parent would unite to enforce the decree. 
There was a positiveness about the proceedings that assured one 
that the evil doer was not given his way simply because he chose 
to go that way, but that he was to be made to realize that he 
must conform to requirements of the community life in which he 
found his life cast. Another thing that showed both the spirit 
of the school and the method of looking carefully into matters 
to warn, encourage, and lead into right habits of control of self, 
was a little conversation that we heard between the principal and 



212 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

an eighth grade pupil. The pupil brought to the office ten cents 
to pay for a window pane which he had broken with a ball. He 
had come promptly and confessed that he had broken the window 
without having to be hunted down. He also stated frankly, when 
asked, what other boys were present, but added, "I broke the 
glass though." The reply to his statement was, "That is true, 
but I must see the other boys for they were not exercising proper 
control over themselves or they would not have been playing 
with you at a time that would be out of order and endanger prop- 
erty." There was a spirit and a frankness about these incidents 
that showed a disposition to right doing and at the same time a 
revelation that attention is given where help is needed. It seems 
perfectly safe to say, however, that the greater part of the trials of 
hall order, management of playroom, spirit in the class room, and 
right sentiments toward the school and one's civic duties are 
assumed and worked out by the pupils greatly to their own ad- 
vantage and training, and in such a manner as to relieve the 
teachers from strain and make the work more effective. 

6. Some conclusions. — A few statements are given in conclu- 
sion as the results of the impressions received from the day's 
visit. There is something in the system worthy of the study and 
attempted application by teachers. However, .if one is not hon- 
est, earnest, persevering, large hearted, sympathetic, hopeful, and 
positive he must expect results according to his weaknesses as 
in any other occupation or course that he may undertake. The 
training in assuming control of self, taking proper attitude to- 
ward wrong, wrong doing, and the wrong doer in the community 
and seeing that the offender reforms or is properly reported to 
higher authority, is of the greatest value. Natural motives of de- 
sire to be trusted, to undertake reasonable difficulties on one's 
own responsibilities, to see justice and right prevail, are thus 



DISCIPLINE. 213 

utilized and consequently developed and trained. A concrete 
training in proper spirit of reverence for our home, our school, 
community, city, state, and nation, is thus given the child early in 
his life. 

The naturalness of the pupil under such treatment shows that 
it is nearer the conditions that prevail in the majority of homes 
where children are led by the impression of right ideals rather than 
always being made the automatons to move only at the will of 
another. Children should obey the self imposed law of the school 
as found in the necessary life of the school itself, but the most 
effective obedience is that which comes from the desire of the 
pupil to obey because his will is in accord with the community's 
sentiment of right and wrong. 

Finally, a word of caution is offered to those disposed to 
view everything out of the ordinary as fanciful, or to refuse it 
any credit unless it can be shown to reach all evils imposed upon 
the school by the wayward, or who say the same thing can be 
found in use in past times, or who insist that it is easier to make 
pupils do what they should in school than it is to lead them to 
do right through their own motives. Granted, that there is some 
truth in all these statements should you still deny the children 
the right to that training that promises better men and women 
in the homes and better citizens in the state? There is much that 
is worthy in the idea of democratic school government and a 
study of the fundamental principles on which the ideal system 
may be founded, eventually, is vastly more useful than to see 
nothing but the weaknesses. Pupils should obey, not their teach- 
ers only, but the higher law of proper self control for the good of 
others and themselves through, exercise of their own will power 
to understand the right thing. 



214 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

SPIRIT, OBSERVATION, 
REVIEWS. 



i. 

THE TEACHER'S SPIRIT. 



106. — Right Spirit in General. 

It is the spirit manifested toward his work that makes any 
person attain his highest value to his employer and to society. 
There is, perhaps, no other occupation in which the spirit put into 
the day's duties is of more consequence than that of the teacher. 
It is only the full hearted teacher that can give expression to 
motives and sentiments that are real educational influences. 
There are few people who can so thoroughly rise above the dis- 
position to put desire before duty that there are no elements of 
drudgery in their daily tasks. The spirit put into the work may 
lighten these, however, and what is drudgery to the many may 
to some become not pleasurable but useful in the power developed 
by difficulties overcome. Few teachers would agree when trying 
to make a list of the things that should be named the drudgery of 
school day. In the next topic are a few things that try many 
teachers and the ability to meet them calmly, without a word of 
evidence of a disturbed interior, bespeaks a person of great self 
control and earnest devotion to the interests of her school. 



THE TEACHER'S SPIRIT. 215 

107.— Toward the Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Routine. 

The spirit put into the task of preparation for the work of 
the coming day has much to do with the success of that day. 
Those people are most fortunate and happiest who have little 
drudgery and few worries. Not that they have fewer responsi- 
bilities and duties than others, but because of the spirit put into 
the work the nature of the duties themselves seem changed. Such 
persons have few troubles. What others call troubles they regard 
as incidents of their occupation and of daily life in general. 

1. Planning lessons and work for the day can not be escaped 
if one desires power and success. New days bring new responsi- 
bilities. 

2. Looking over written work, especially when the writing 
is poor, and worst of all when so many mistakes are found which 
pupils have been told so often to avoid and shown how to do it. 
It takes a brave heart and large faith here. 

3. Selecting matter for opening exercises and making the 
exercises of practical value and interesting. This topic is dis- 
cussed briefly on other pages. 

4. Keeping room, desks, boards, and pupils in order. Espec- 
ially in this last point does the weary teacher many times find her 
spirits all exhausted when the hour for closing arrives. Such 
times as this are the places to stop and "count your blessings." 

5. Keeping records and making reports is another trying 
occupation. Under some superintendents this becomes a "wear- 
iness to the flesh" that may make it almost pardonable for the 
worn teacher to think some uncomplimentary things about the 
inventor of red tape, especially the school variety of red tape. 
However, the distasteful has its place and may be so put under the 
feet of the laborer as to lift him instead of bending his shoulders 



216 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

with a load of over heavy burdens. This is another place to count 
blessings. 

6. So much has been said on other pages about the work 
of the recitation period that it will simply be mentioned here. 
Earnestness, enthusiasm, accuracy, clear grasp of work to be done 
and firm but good natured determination that definite work must 
be done by pupils are all essentials in this period to show right 
spirit. 

108. — In Relation to Professional Improvement. 

1. Every teacher should have some means of knowing per- 
sonally of the educational discussions and movements of the day. 
Attendance at local teachers' meetings in graded schools and in 
township or other local units under the county superintendent 
should be regarded as an opportunity rather than a requirement. 
No meeting can fail to be of benefit if all, or the majority of the 
teachers, go there with profitable questions that they desire dis- 
cussed and with a disposition to say something as opportunity 
may offer. It shows a lack of proper spirit for the teacher to 
complain of such meetings that they are not profitable and try 
to throw all responsibility on the presiding officer and executive 
committee. Be fair and say to your "professional self," "What 
have you done, sir, to make these meetings successful?" The 
good seats in the lecture hall are demanding too much from the 
platform; the pew requires, too often, that the pulpit must fur- 
nish all the enthusiasm in the preaching and other church work. 
Dead embers are plentiful; real, live coals are in demand in the 
teachers' meetings and elsewhere. Aside from the local meetings 
come the county gatherings occasionally, the sectional meetings 
of the various sections of the state, and the State Association 



THE TEACHER'S SPIRIT. 2L7 

meetings. The progressive teacher attends and is personally in- 
terested in as many of these as possible. 

2. The great educational effort for the ordinary teacher each 
year, of course, is the county institute. If this is what the county 
superintendents labor hard to have it be, it should be of value to 
nearly all teachers of the county. There are some who may be 
graduates of higher institutions or because of superior professional 
attainments may not find the institute valuable, and to those the 
sensible superintendent shows such favors as his oath of office 
will allow. However, there are some claiming such recognition 
on slender arguments. Others can be found who have the diploma 
mentioned but who sit quietly down and never help the institute 
or other educational gatherings of the county in any way, and 
still desire recognition as candidates for good positions or even 
for the superintendency of the county. Such people are unpro- 
fessional in spirit to say the least. The teacher who attends a good 
summer school is sometimes excused from institue attendance. 
This would seem but fair and yet there are questions entering into 
it that none but the superintendent on the ground can actually 
decide. To the teacher who attends the institute it may be said 
that one secures benefits in accordance with the previous prepara- 
tion and the spirit of work and earnestness shown during the 
session. The teachers of a county have a considerable part in 
making the institute what it should be. 

3. The professional reading of teachers is a question of large 
importance. As to the kind of educational papers one should 
read each teacher must, in great measure, be ''a law unto himself." 
There are papers suitable to teachers of all degrees of develop- 
ment. As the teacher grows in skill and power she should out- 
grow some educational journals, but she should thereby grow 
into others. Attorneys, physicians, ministers, business men in 



218 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

general, and farmers who are progressive read the journals de- 
voted especially to their work. Why should the teacher, the 
leader of the educational work of the community, be without a 
regular journal? Aside from the journals the progressive teacher 
reads some professional books. It is not the best policy to rely 
on borrowed books entirely for this reading. He should purchase 
and read, mark, re-read, and mark again some of the standard 
professional works each year. No book gives its best results by 
one reading. In connection with the specifically professional read- 
ing every teacher should do some general reading of papers, and 
magazines that will keep him posted on the movements of the 
thought of the day. Some good books should also be read, but by 
no means should the busy teacher feel that he must keep up with 
all or even most of the late popular books. Most of the popular 
books one can afford to wait a year before reading and then if 
may be that he will find that there is something more profitable 
he can do than to read certain books at all. If he decides other- 
wise then he has a very good reason for reading them and the 
time will be profitably spent. The following suggestion may savor 
a little of "shop" — a thing about which some people seem pecu- 
liarly sensitive — but it is well for the teacher to try to find help 
for his particular work in all the reading he does. Reading should 
make one a better workman in his own line regardless of the fact 
of its not being specially professional and in no other calling is 
general information more in demand than in that of the teacher, 

lOf). — Regard for Compensation. 

1. In selecting a life work the question of compensation if 
one of primary consideration. Every teacher should regard the 
question of salary as one of importance. The salary should stana 
as nearly as possible up to a just recognition of value of service. 



THE TEACHER'S SPIRIT. 219 

It should not be a measure of effort, however. The true spirit 
of service assumes that in taking a position one agrees to give his 
best efforts and his time to the work he has accepted. Promo- 
tion comes through earning more than the salary received. 

2. It is a proper motive to desire to merit and win the 
approval of the general public. This is all right when the attempt 
to reach the end is made through superior work and attainments 
and not through subterfuges. Also the approval of the children 
should be desired, but especially should it be that which they can 
justly give when they are men and women and the judgment is 
well developed. Sometimes the immediate judgment of the child 
will be reversed in after life, which shows that the teacher failed 
in a measure to get the approval through right motives of the 
child. 

3. Every good teacher has some pride in his "profession" 
and desires that his standing as a teacher may be such as to give 
credit to all others of his class. Or at least he should feel that 
the name "teacher" should not be lowered because he is one. 

4. Great good can come to the teacher from the opportuni- 
ties for personal growth and development if the spirit is kept 
right. Little can be expected of that person who has no desire to 
become a master in his trade. To have no ambition or longing to 
be a superior workman is the curse of far too many lives. The 
true spirit inspires to better things. The school room furnishes 
the grandest opportunity for the development of true manhood 
and womanhood in the teacher that can be found anywhere. 
There is every reason for the one who daily stands before chil- 
dren to have the highest of ideals and to strive constantly to live 
up to those ideals. This is a part of the compensation in teaching 
that should be secured by every teacher and should in no wise be 
neglected in counting the rewards of the teacher's life. 



220 THE TEACHER AT WORK 

5. Another motive that actuates the earnest spirited teacher 
is the desire to save pupils. "Education should counteract sin 
by making the race stronger." — Hughes. There are dangers 
against which every pupil must struggle. He needs the inspiring 
help of a true teacher all along the way. Go out for the wounded. 
What are the names that will fill the blank prison records now 
waiting? The places left vacant and the names written there with 
a little less crimson because of the efforts of devoted teachers none 
but the Infinite can ever know. 

110. — Spirit Towards Parents and Others. 

1. The feeling toward parents should be of a nature to en- 
courage their co-operation. They are willing to accord the 
teacher all the power necessary and not interfere with his prero- 
gatives if he will make himself so approachable that the parent 
can feel in him a friend instead of a self-centered monarch not to 
be approached by any excepting those to whom he may stretch 
forth his sceptre. Parents have interests and burdens that should 
appeal to the teacher as sensible and worthy of his recognition. 

2. A dictatorial manner toward the janitor of the building 
is a mistake. Win and unite for the good of the school every per- 
son who in any way touches it. Make an effort to manage so as 
to reduce the work of the janitor rather than increase it. Be will- 
ing to give him all the credit possible for helpfulness. 

3. There is many a noble, self-sacrificing man on the school 
boards of our state whose efforts are worthy of the most thorough 
commendation by teachers. He serves without pay and stands 
frequently between the schools and the scheming of those who 
would sell them for a mess of pottage. He is the teacher's best 
friend and should occasionally know that his efforts are appreci- 
ated. Of course proper regard for the position and work of prin- 



THE TEACHER'S SPIRIT. 221 

cipal or superintendent as a school official is essential in proper 
spirit. 

4. Time is precious, but the teacher who makes every one 
who has a little business with him feel that he can not be bothered 
out of school hours, is missing one of the greatest of opportunities 
to learn and to win the help of others. Agents of various sorts 
may take some time but they will be glad to accommodate their 
calls to the teacher's convenience usually. The representative of 
book firms are entitled to respectful hearing and they can give 
items of general information about books that any teacher may 
use to advantage. Get more, even from your interrogator, than 
he gets from you. On the other hand, the stranger expects you 
to stand reasonably in the background until there is reason for a 
show of interest. Therefore, do not try to force processes by ex- 
cessive affability. 

5. Patience in answering provoking missives; charity when 
there is an opportunity for complaining of remissness; kindly 
remembrance of personal circumstances, inquiry after sick ones, 
congratulations on success, cordial wishes for the future are sug- 
gestions given as an opportunity for the application of practical 
religion in business. There is a wealth of suggestion for the 
teacher here also. More interest in others will remove many of 
the teacher's ills. 

6. A good time socially is not to be denied the teacher 
occasionally, but when that seems to be the end for which 
she lives her life as a teacher is liable to be brief. Teaching 
is the first business of the teacher, and these other matters while 
proper enough should be made secondary. Behavior on the 
streets and in other public places shows the true dignity or lack 
of it in the teacher. In some senses the teacher must sacrifice 
personal liberty of action for the good of the pupil and in accord- 



222 . THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

ance with the common customs of the place in which he is work- 
ing. Care in one's personal life is very necessary, and the spirit 
of daring to run too far contrary to the ideas of the community 
on social questions is fatal to a teacher's success. 

7. In the spirit toward the work of other teachers the manli- 
ness or womanliness has an opportunity to assert itself. Jealousy, 
envy, spreading evil reports and similar traits, and actions 
are beneath the dignity of a true teacher. As a body teach- 
ers are ready to help and accord all credit to one of their 
number who does well. There is room at times for more courtesy 
in the struggle for positions and other public recognition. Teach- 
ers are probably no worse in these respects than other people, 
but possibly should be better. 

8. The spirit toward the children. Of all the manifestations 
of the proper spirit this is probably the most important. To as- 
sume and maintain the right attitude toward childhood is a fun- 
damental in the success of the teacher. 

(1). There is much literature that is helpful in this particular. 
Longfellow has written various things but the best of his when 
read and studied until the real meaning enters the mind is the 
poem, "Children." Other quotations are plentiful. "Children are 
magnets drawing age back to youth again." Children are the to- 
morrow of society." Wheatly. "Children have more need of 
models than of critics." Joseph Joubert. 

(2). But better than the pages of literature alone is the study 
at first hand of the child himself. It is to be sincerely hoped that 
the devotee to scientific child study shall not be allowed to use 
the expression, "child study," in his way so long as to frighten 
others from the sensible study that every intelligent teacher should 
make. There are two sides to the teaching of the child and sym- 
pathy with him will blend them in about the proper proportion. 



THE TEACHER'S SPIRIT. 223 

These are example and experience. The former gets down beside 
the child and puts him on his feet. The latter allows him to walk 
when he has once learned. 

(3). Gratitude is a plant of slow growth and teachers must 
not be too anxious to see fruits in the appreciation of their efforts 
through the expressions of approval by the children. Here is a 
key point in the characteristics of teachers in the fact that they are 
too impatient to see results. Let time be your prime minister. 
Do the work faithfully and wait for results. 

(4). Doing the same thing over in a mechanical way has a 
deadening effect on the powers. One of the beauties of childhood 
is that it insists on variety and thus keeps the teacher from ossi- 
fication of soul. 

(5). The teacher is not a dealer in intellectual wares and it 
is a mistake to think of work with pupils as measured by the ex- 
pense one has put upon his education. That education is worth 
all it costs in the added manhood or womanhood to the teacher 
and is not an article to be measured in a commercial way. The 
power ought to be used just as any power should be used, but its 
importance is not in the intellectual products to be sold to school 
boards to be dealt out day by day to children of the district. The 
real teacher is the cultivator of immortal aspirations and the stim- 
ulator of undying inspiration. 

111. — Some General Thoughts. 

1. There are various formulas for reaching that state where 
one can meet nearly all the difficulties incident to the daily work 
of the teacher in the proper spirit, but one good one is found in 
Drummond's lecture, "The Greatest Thing in the World." 
Teachers should remember, however, that they are not the only 
people whose burdens are such that they must constantly keep 



224 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

replenishing their stock of patience, and of the other virtues. In 
addition the following books may be found helpful. Power 
Through Repose — Annie Payson Call; As a Matter of Course — 
Annie Payson Call, and The Gospel of Relaxation, (A Talk to 
Students), by Prof. William James. This last named lecture is 
found in James's Talks to Teachers on Psychology. 

2. It is a dangerous thing for us to fall to pitying ourselves 
and think that we are martyrs to the cause of human advance- 
ment. It is a good thing to remember that, "thy fate is but the 
common fate of all," and take heart. 

3. "The teacher's business is to inspire, to illuminate, to in- 
struct. Goodness is greater than greatness." — Gunsaulus. 

4. The world is so calloused with cares and crosses that the 
one who would brighten it must carry an extra supply of cheer- 
fulness else the indifference will exhaust his efforts before results 
are reached. 

5. If the place you desire is not at hand take one that is. 
"Most anybody can do a thing he feels like doing, but it takes 
a true man to do a thing when he doesn't feel like doing it." — 
Sam Jones. "Get thy spindle and thy distaff ready and God will 
send thee the flax." 

6. Finally — Not our care for the large place in the hearts 
of others for ourselves, but the large place in our hearts for others 
is the key to true success. 



OBSERVATION, OR SCHOOL VISITATION. 225 

II. 

OBSERVATION, OR SCHOOL VISITATION. 

112. — The Observer or Visitor. 

1. There are three classes into which school visitors may 
be divided. These are officials, including school officers, princi- 
pals and superintendents; parents and sometimes other interested 
persons who may have no children in school; teachers, who visit 
and observe as a means of professional growth and improvement. 
Each individual of these classes will carry away impressions 
colored by the particular purpose he has in visiting, and by the 
special relation he bears to the school. All will center their atten- 
tion, however, on the teacher and find in him, in the main, the ex- 
planation for the conditions found. This may be just and there 
may be much injustice in it at times. But regardless of the quest- 
ions of fairness it is deeply rooted in the common mind, "as is 
the teacher, so is the school." All successful operations have a 
mind and personality back of them somewhere. 

2. In the following discussion the "teacher observer" will 
be chiefly in mind, but some things said may well apply to all the 
classes named. The observer should approach his task with a 
proper spirit. The good to be gained from observation is de- 
pendent upon the attitude assumed by the person viewing the 
work. If the purpose is to get a grist of shortcomings of other 
teachers and other schools out of which to compound a cake of 
condolence to render palatable one's every day diet of his own 
mistakes and failures the time spent in observation might be em- 
ployed to better advantage in some other occupation. Hunting 
faults dulls one's faculty for recognition of virtues. Enough 
errors lie on the surface to prevent any person's forgetting their 



226 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

existence. The spirit of the visitor should be the humbler and 
more generous one of that of a learner. The mind alert to the 
movement of the school or class work and generously attempting 
to discover why things are done thus and so, is the only one that 
can reap a rich harvest from observation of others at work. It 
is better not to undertake the work of observation at all than to 
come to it with a mind half-blindfolded and benumbed by assum- 
ing the place of an adverse critic. If not a mantle of charity, at 
least one of good, common sense should envelop the visitor at all 
times. 

3. Seeking out schools and exercises that give evidences of 
what the pupil can do in display work rather than what he is in 
himself in power, health, and control is not the most profitable 
employment of one's time. To visit a school expecting spectacu- 
lar displays and exhibitions of educational curiosities is a mis- 
take. If such schools exist they should be visited as holiday 
diversions and not when one is in the serious occupation of trying 
to equip himself better as a teacher. The search for the startling 
and curious are as much out of place in this line as in other lines 
of educational activity. Evolution is better than revolution, and 
its movement is such that one may readily keep pace with it, and 
it is this conservative condition with its impulse of growth for 
which the visitor should look. 

4. The observer should take a broad view. Circumscribed 
vision results in a crippled mind. Each exercise in management 
and discipline should be seen and interpreted in the broadest 
relation possible and not as to immediate results alone. The 
observer should see each point made in the teaching process not 
in its present relations only, but also in the broader and larger 
bearing of the entire lesson and the entire subject. Trying to 
settle each item as to its correctness as it appears in the progress 



OBSERVATION, OR SCHOOL VISITATION. 227 

of the lesson will lead to a narrow view and defeat the very pur- 
pose of the observation hour. Not only should the question in 
the mind of the on-looker be — "Why does the teacher do this;" 
but also, "what is the relation of what is now being done to the 
completed lesson, subject, and the life of the learner?" View not 
too narrowly. 

113.— Things to be Observed. 

It should be remembered that not all of the following points 
should be regarded as of the same importance. Neither is the 
order supposed to be that of relative value in any way. 

1. Externalities, accessories, or mechanics of the class or 
school. 

a. Condition of ■ room — floor, desks, blackboard, tempera- 
ture, ventilation. 

b. Seating of pupils and of reciting class. 

c. Books, pencils, and other materials — in use — not in use 
— by class studying — by class reciting. 

d. Apparatus, adaptability, quantity. 

e. General atmosphere — coldness, statue-like positions or 
such as indicate indifference and disorder, high tension or no 
tension, animation or lifelessness. 

2. The teacher. 

a. Manner — Is it that of calm, unruffled dignity that speaks 
of power without the appearance of attempting to wear its badge 
on the exterior? Is she really confident of her ability or only 
playing make-believe attainments? Does the manner show ani- 
mation and give evidence of power to win the confidence of the 
pupils? Is the teacher's bearing such as to indicate a nagging 
disposition and one that invites antagonism? Is the voice well 



228 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

modulated so as to show self-control and power on the part ol the 
teacher? 

b. Questions — Is the form proper and calculated to make 
the pupil think? Are the questions both thoughtful and reason- 
ably comprehensive? Is the order of the questions such as to 
lead to the sensible development of the lesson points in logical 
order? Are the questions effective in reaching desirable results? 

c. Management — In passing questions around the class and 
in naming the pupil that is to recite. In answering the questions 
that arise from pupils. Success in meeting unexpected ignorance 
and turning the failures of members of the class into advantage 
for the attainment of higher powers as a teacher. Skill manifested 
in meeting interruptions and in dealing with inattention. Helpful- 
ness of the devices used and the readiness with which they are 
applied. Adaptability to the matter in hand of the exercises given 
to the class to perform. The use of voice, eye, gestures, and ex- 
pressions of the countenance in a way that reaches the difficulty 
without attracting undue attention. Economy shown by making 
a little talking say a great deal. Judgment, earnestness, and per- 
sistency shown in efforts made to fix in minds of pupils right lines 
of action demanded by the interests of the school as a body. 

3. The pupils. 

a. Is the attitude toward the teacher that of respect, indif- 
ference or positive insolence? 

b. Do they sit properly and stand squarely on their feet 
when they recite? 

c. Are their answers clear, pointed, audible, thoughtful, and 
in pure English? 

d. Do they ask sensible, time-killing, or impertiment ques- 
tions? 



OBSERVATION, OR SCHOOL VISITATION. 229 

e. Do they do their work in a manner that indicates direct- 
ness of thought and with effective results? 

f. Is their deportment in general commendable? 

g. Observe pupils as children without expecting more of 
them than adults would accomplish under similar circumstances. 

4. The lesson. 

a. Is it possible to see and end in view toward which the 
teacher is definitely leading the class? Or, in other words, do the 
teacher and class have an aim to be reached in the period? 

b. What is done in the way of an introduction that prepares 
the class for the better understanding of the new part of the sub- 
ject not yet met in recitation? 

c. In the discussion of the new matter are the points made 
in logical order, comparison properly made, and general truths 
clearly stated? 

d. In closing is there a careful summary of the essential 
points and some fixing drills to impress them on the minds of 
pupils? 

e. And finally, is the assignment for the next day clearly 
and carefully made so that there is no mistaking what is to be done 
in the study hour and what will be expected in the recitations? 

Summarize and put into writing your observations with prin- 
ciples on which they seem to you to be founded. 



230 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

III. 

OPENING EXERCISES. 

On this question of opening exercises there seems to be much 
uncertainty both as to the purpose and to the material or means 
to be used in conducting them. To make them effective three 
things are especially essential. They must have educational value; 
they must be brief; they must be varied. The following points 
are given as suggestions and are not presumed to be exhaustive. 
The thinking teacher will depart from these lines, but she may 
possibly get some help in starting by reading them thoughtfully. 

114. — Purposes. 

1. To get the school started as a unit for the day. Pupils 
come from various homes bearing experiences to school that 
are very different in their nature. Some are just arriving when 
the bell rings, others have been on the ground at play so that in 
this way minds are not centered on the same things. The opening 
exercises should be so ordered that the minds may at once be 
turned into the same channel, thus preparing for a more unified 
day's work. A few moments for adjusting one's self to the new 
conditions are very essential to teacher and pupil alike. 

2. To arouse an interest that will encourage promptness. 
These exercises should be a factor in keeping the tardy record 
lower than it would be without them. Instinctive curiosity and 
the feeling that we may lose something have more to do with 
older people in making them prompt than they probably recog- 
nize or would be willing to admit. This tendency should be rec- 
ognized and utilized in school days. 

3. To give general exercises that can not well be given at 



OPENING EXERCISES. 231 

any other period of the day. This point will be illustrated under 
the next leading topic and consequently will not be discussed at 
length here. Often a gathering up of the experiences of the 
previous day of school or the review of some entertainment of 
the preceding evening may furnish material for a general dis- 
cussion with the school that would not fit well at any other time 
in the program. 

4. To make suggestions that help in school government 
and that improve the pupil's ideals. The tactful turning of a 
playground incident, or the sensible use of a well selected story, 
may be able to touch some difficult problem of discipline in a 
manner that no other thing could reach so effectively. A good 
quotation on industry learned and heartily recited by teacher and 
pupils together and by classes and some singly, will put an air of 
earnestness and a spirit of work into a school many times that is 
surprising. The first few minutes of the day are a great power 
in the formation of ideals. The minds are then fresh, the interests 
are all centered in the operations of the day and then ideals that 
may be realized in the workings of the school room and play- 
ground may readily be set up for the united effort of the pupils for 
attainment. 

115. — Means and Materials. 

1. Stories that appeal to the common experiences of all chil- 
dren and that embody the principles and ideals of right living. 
Likewise stories that are adapted to special occasions and to the 
various seasons may be used. Books and stories may be read, 
but preparing on a chapter or a complete short story and telling 
it is much better. The teacher that would make a success of this 
work as well as in the class work, must cultivate the story "in- 
stinct" continually. Random stories will not do and those used 



232 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

must be fresh and adapted to the needs of the occasion. Col- 
lections of stories can be found on the market, and while very 
good to use for these exercises they have not reached their full 
value in the hands of the teacher if this is the end of the use she 
makes of them. Probably their greatest value consists in the 
training that such a volume properly studied can give one in the 
ability to select stories wisely from fresh sources in papers and 
magazines. Good short stories and the ability to tell them well 
will put a teacher at a premium more quickly than almost any 
other special gift. This is not a gift, but something that may be 
cultivated by any intelligent, industrious person. A source of ex- 
cellent stories that should not be overlooked is the Bible. If from 
no other motive this source is worthy of the highest attention, 
because it is classic literature. Too many of us are lamentably 
weak in our common reading of ordinary literature because we do 
not see the force of the scriptural allusions that fill the pages of the 
best authors. Thirty-four freshmen in an eastern college when 
given selections from Tennyson to explain the scriptural allusions 
gave only 328 correct answers out of a possible 748. The opening 
exercises in our schools could well do something to offset this 
condition by using the best of the Bible stories as a means of in- 
teresting pupils. 

2. Simple experiments that may easily be performed can be 
used to give variety and interest to the morning opening. Specific 
gravity, the principle of the action of the siphon, inertia, law of 
gravity and the like may readily be illustrated by the intelligent, 
wide awake teacher. Inexpensive little books giving information 
in performing such experiments are on the market so that any 
teacher may be equipped. Our school journals furnish much good 
material in this particular also. The teacher's own native good 
sense should do much to help along in this line. If she cannot do 



OPENING EXERCISES. 233 

anything there is probably some bright boy in the school who can 
furnish enough material of the kind to make a start. 

3. Current events are never dry when presented in the right 
way. The whole school should be interested in this exercise. It 
might be used once a week, toward the close, so that the weekly 
papers of the majority of the homes may be brought into use. 
Until pupils show some good judgment in the selection of the 
items that they present there should be a revising committee to 
prevent the waste of time and the cultivation of wrong taste that 
would otherwise grow up. The teacher should be an advisory 
member of this committee. Also the teacher should have some- 
thing to tell if no one of the pupils happens to get the same event. 
4. General topics given by the teacher or some older pupils 
from maps or charts prepared for the occasion. The writer re- 
calls hearing a very interesting talk given once by a high school 
boy on the water power of Niagara and illustrated by sensible 
maps and charts that he had prepared for this special occasion. 
Papers and magazines are full of material for such talks and the 
only thing needed is a teacher with ingenuity and energy to make 
it help in the opening of the school day. 

5. Committing extracts and quotations from our best au- 
thors and rehearsing them is another means of varying the open- 
ing exercises. Eight to ten lines per week will give a good start in 
a "term, but more than this is done in many schools. Several 
grammar grades the past year where opportunities were not bet- 
ter than in most schools for such work committed within the 
year as entire school from seven hundred to one thousand lines. 
Besides this, classes and individuals did other work of the kind. 
The way is here, it is the will that is needed. 

6. Rapid drills on the fundamental operations in arithmetic 
can sometimes be used to give spice to the exercises, and if the 



234 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

teacher will put the energy into it to do the work more rapidly 
than any of the pupils it will not be an uninteresting morning 
when this is the program. The common tables of denominate 
numbers can be made so permanent that they will never leave the 
memory. The arithmetic can furnish a great deal if rightly used. 

7. Lists of important dates may be wisely utilized and the 
foolish superstition that too many, even among teachers, have, 
that to remember history is not possible because they ''never 
could remember dates," may thus be trained out of pupils before 
they realize what they are doing. Of course the event giving the 
date importance should be associated with its proper date. Dates 
may thus be suggested for pupils to give the event and the re- 
verse. Groups of important statesmen, authors, and other great 
names could be made familiar in this manner. Recently in a 
teacher's examination the requirement in one of the questions 
was to name three favorite poets and one named McKinley, 
Dewey, and Hobson. It would seem that there should be some 
time given to prominent characters in our schools when candi- 
dates for the teachers' ranks make such guesses. 

8. At the present time there is an effort, and it is worthy 
the attention of progressive teachers, to give some recognition to 
the works of our greatest artists. The material for sketches of 
the lives and the work of the great masters is found in the better 
school journals and in cheap but reliable form in books for sale 
by firms handling teachers' supplies. An interesting talk by the 
teacher on the life of an artist and a display of some of his pic- 
tures, as reproduced by the many companies furnishing such ex- 
cellent cheap copies, can be made a useful topic for an opening 
exercise occasionally. 

0. Another drill of great value is the presentation of a few 
words of difficult spelling, pictures, lines, plane figures on the 



OPENING EXERCISES. 235 

board or chart exposing them for a very brief time that con- 
centration of attention may be secured. After the things exposed 
have been covered the school may attempt to spell the words, 
draw the figures or write names. Objects may be used for the 
same purpose. The object in such an exercise is not especially 
the learning that may be done by the pupils, but the better train- 
ing in ability to hold the attention closely and intensely on one 
thing at a time. If more time were given to such training there 
would be less wandering of the pupils' attention when they try to 
study. Try it. 

10. Of course it is understood that music forms a good 
means for a part of the opening exercises. When music is not 
regularly taught some ideas of the technical side may be given 
occasionally if done in an interesting way. Let the pupils sing 
and memorize good songs, and do not kill the interest in the 
music by trying to make every pupil sing. If a pupil cannot sing, 
he should pay attention, however. Some stories about the early 
life and experiences of familiar composers would be well received 
by pupils. 



236 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

IV. 
READING AND REFERENCES. 

116.— The Teacher's Reading. 

Teachers should be thoughtful readers. There is no better 
general rule than the familiar and oft quoted one of Bacon's, 
"Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for 
granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and con- 
sider." As to what one should read in this age of many books 
it is not so easy to decide. It is not easy either to get a great 
deal of helpful advice, for the person advising knows that the 
books he may suggest are likely not to fit well in the mental hab- 
its and experiences of his questioner. There are some general 
thoughts, however, that one may venture to give on the subject 
of reading and references. 

1. One should own most of the really valuable books that 
he reads. The feeling of ownership makes the book a closer com- 
panion. It is always at hand and among the most valuable time 
that one spends in reading is the few minutes that may be desig- 
nated as the odd-moments seasons when he picks up a favorite 
book and re-reads a thought or gets a brief view of the land ahead 
in the author's treatment of the subject. The majority of people 
must do most of their reading in these odd-moment periods, and 
thus need to have the book conviently near. Many books should 
be read consecutively even though little is read at a time. Some 
may be read by special chapters from table of contents and index 
because of the use one can make of the matter at once. This is 
very profitable reading. A second great reason why one should 
own the books he reads is that he may mark the things in them 



READING AND REFERENCES. 237 

that are best for him. Marking the book is more helpful for the 
time spent on it than note making, and the suggestion is then 
always at hand and not in a misplaced note book when one wants 
it. A very effective means of marking is to underscore in blue pen- 
cil the passage that seems best. A book read and marked in this 
way is much more valuable than one that must be returned to a 
library unmarked. It can be re-read by reading marked pas- 
sages. Also in second reading the same book may be marked 
with a red pencil showing the additional thoughts that seem im- 
pressive from this closer acquaintance. Each re-reading of book 
or chapter should indicate some change in the reader by the marks 
that are left in the book. 

2. Watch for the revised editions when purchasing books. 
These may not always be improvements over the former edition, 
but the author has found some things that he thinks are better and 
it is quite probable that the revision makes the book more valu- 
able. The date of copyright or the date affixed to the note dis- 
cussing the revision should be noticed rather than the publisher's 
date on the title page. Webster's dictionary sold by cheap stores 
and street fakirs may be pulished very recently and still be of the 
edition of 1847. Books made cheap in that way are worthless. 

3. All, or nearly all, of one's reading should have some 
thought in it that is applicable to some phase of his daily life. 
Looking for these thoughts and seeing when they fit is a very 
profitable side to his reading. He should not talk to others a 
great deal about things he thinks he sees in certain books if they 
are liable to discourage him by insisting that he is reading too 
much between the lines or reading into sentences what is not 
there. It is a dangerous thing, it is true, to read one's prejudices 
into a book. On the other hand a really good book is valuable 
much oftener for what it suggests to the reader than it is in the 



238 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

cold facts that it gives him. Get the author's meaning, but let 
that grow larger in you by its suggestiveness. In this connection 
it may be said that books are judges of readers far oftener than 
readers are accurate judges of books. When a reader lays aside 
a classic or a strong treatise and says it has nothing for him the 
criticism, if any is to be made at all, is a criticism of the reader 
and not of the book. 

117. — Reference Books. 

1. In various places throughout the chapters references are 
named because they will be helpful with special features of the 
work. In no cases are these references considered exhaustive in 
scope. Many others on some of the same topics could be named. 
Excellent collections of books are named in different publications 
so that little space will be given here to lists of miscellaneous 
books. Firms issuing books send excellent descriptive catalogs 
which give much information, and these should be procured and 
preserved. 

Whenever one is teaching where there is access to a library 
the opportunity to use it should not be neglected. In geography, 
reading, history and literature more or less use can be made of 
such works as Stoddard's Illustrated Lectures, Earth and Its In- 
habitants, Baedeker's Guides, Stateman's Year Book and others 
of the class. Most of these are not within the reach of teachers 
to purchase, but are suggested as one class of books of which not 
enough use is made by teachers who may have access to them. 
It would not be a wise use of space here to try to name books 
on academic subjects in general, but a few dealing with special 
sides of the teacher's work are given as suggestive from which 
teachers may profitably select and read. 



READING AND REFERENCES. 239 

Art of Questioning — Landon. 

School Management — White. 

Theory and Practice of Teaching — Page. 

Talks to Teachers on Psychology — James. 

Mistakes in Teaching — Hughes. 

How to Secure and Retain Attention — Hughes. 

How to Keep Order — Hughes. 

Dickens as an Educator — Hughes. 

Art of Securing Attention — Fitch. 

Waymarks for Teachers — Arnold. 

Reading; How to Teach It — Arnold. 

How to Teach Reading in Public Schools — Clark. 

A study of the Child — Taylor. 

Nature Study — Jackman. 

Nature Study and Life — Hodge. 

Nature Study and the Child — C. B. Scott. 

Leonard and Gertrude — Pestalozzi. 

Educational Reformers — Quick. 

On Stimulus in School — Sedgwick. 

Unconscious Tuition — Huntington. 

Common Sense in Education and Teaching — Barnett. 

Jean Mitchell's School — Wray. 

The Story of the Mind — Baldwin. 

Practical Hints for Teachers — Howland. 

Apperception — Rooper. 

Point of Contact in Teaching — DuBois. 

Apperception — Lange. 

Talks on Pedagogics — Parker. 

Teaching and Teachers — Trumbull. 

The School Master in Literature — 

Jukes-Edwards — Winship. 



240 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

Art of Study — Hinsdale. 

Method in Education — Roark. 

Philosophy of Teaching — Tompkins. 

Thinking and Learning to Think — Schaeffer. 

Education — Spencer. 

Self-Culture — James Freeman Clarke. 

Art of Illustration — Spurgeon. 

The Blackboard in Sunday School — Bailey. 

Illustrative Blackboard Sketching — Hintz. 

Easy Things to Draw — Augsburg. 

Easy Drawings for the Geography Class — Augsburg. 

Chalk Modeling — Heffron. 

Tracing and Sketching — Gillan. 

Geography by Map Drawing — Kellogg. 

Picture Study in Elementary Schools — Wilson. 

How to Enjoy Pictures — Emery. 

Biographies of Great Artists — Educational Pub. Co. 

Turning Points in Great Careers — Thayer. 
Men of Business — Stoddard. 
Pushing to the Front — Marden. 
Getting on in the World — Mathews. 
Some collections of good stories. 
A collection of anecdotes. 

General Method — McMurry. 

Method of the Recitation — McMurry. 

Special Method in Reading — McMurry. 

Special Method in History and Literature — McMurry. 

Special Method in Science — McMurry. 

Special Method in Geography — McMurry. 

Essentials of Methods — DeGarmo. 



READING AND REFERENCES. 241 

Herbart and the Herbartians — DeGarmo. 

Ufer's Pedagogy of Herbart — DeGarmo. 

The group of books beginning with Art of Illustration by 
Spurgeon and closing with Biographies of Great Artists, deals 
with the questions of illustration and art. The first one is a series 
of lectures given by the great preacher on the question of prin- 
ciples of illustration. It is very readable and equally valuable 
if studied properly. The titles of the others suggest their nature 
as dealing with graphic illustration, a feature that all teachers 
should study. The later books mentioned are to help the teacher 
and pupil from the other side in cultivation of ability to see 
beauty, reality, and principles of illustration from study of standard 
works of art. This professional study should not be allowed to 
monopolize the attention so that the art and beauty are neglected. 
Pictures should be studied more. 

The list following may seem a strange collection to recom- 
mend for teachers, but it is suggestive of a valuable line of read- 
ing that teachers should follow. It need not be these particular 
books. Others of the kind, and the book-stores are well sup- 
plied with them, are just as good and some may be better. There 
is a picturing of life in such books that helps one to get higher 
and better ideals and that supplies many a good illustration and 
story to arouse better ideals in pupils. Biographies and anec- 
dotes are almost professional lines of study for teachers. 

The last group, beginning with General Method, gives a brief 
list of books that have exerted a decided influence in clearing 
the minds of teachers as to the actual movements of the pupil's 
mind in learning, and the consequent method followed by the 
teacher in teaching. These books have done more, probably, 
than any other one similar group that can be found to arouse 
thought on the part of teachers as to the actual operations in 



242 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

the recitation period. They should be studied, marked, and every 
suggestion compared by the teacher with the actual work she is 
doing in her classroom. If the teacher will industriously try to 
see how she is applying the steps of instruction, how they conform 
to the demands of the learning mind, she can not fail to be bene- 
fited by the study of these books. It is not the intention here to 
set them out above all other books by this special mention, but 
since they are so adapted as a group to a particular need of so 
many teachers, if teachers will study them and try properly to 
apply the suggestions, it seems admissible to make this special 
mention. Every book in the entire list, and innumerable other 
books, is very valuable for teachers, and the admonition we wish 
to give is, that every teacher study and try to make application of 
the help that may be obtained from such books. At least a little 
should be read each day. Read, think, apply and grow. 



REVIEWS. 243 

V. 

REVIEWS. 

118. — Necessity and Time for Them. 

Repetition is very necessary in making lasting impressions 
and close associations. Because of this there is a place for specific 
reviews in school work. Let them show the weak points and 
arrange by drills and backward references to make these strong. 
Reviews should guide the teacher as well as strengthen the pupil. 
The old way of reviewing at stated times, once a month, or twice 
a term, is probably not the best way of determining the time for 
these reviews. Especially is that plan bad when it leads up to an 
examination. It encourages cramming at the last and leads the 
pupil to think he may slight his daily work because it will be re- 
viewed any way before examination. In teaching, every effort 
should be made to avoid giving the impression that some things 
may be slighted because the subject is to be reviewed later. 
These reviews should be governed by the condition of the work 
rather than by time periods. When a large unit or division of the 
subject has been covered it may be well then to pause for a gen- 
eral survey of the ground that has been covered. This may come 
any day of the week and any week of the term. 

119.— The Nature of Reviews. 

They should be new views instead of mere repetition of ideas 
as they appeared to the mind the first time they were met. The 
early ideas of the subject should now stand out before the pupil's 
mind in a clearer and more definite view because of the develop- 
ment he has received from the later study. They should result 
in a general comparison, sifting, classifying and readjusting of 



244 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

the contents of the mind. In the daily lessons there have been 
efforts at elaboration, or working out conclusions, by compari- 
sons and contrasts or deeper views of former and newly present- 
ed notions. These should result in careful statements of general 
truths that are derived from this act of elaboration. In the review 
the general truths, definitions, principles, and rules are to be re- 
garded more than the individual facts from which they were de- 
rived. Daily work develops general truths, reviews seek more 
to relate them in the larger body that makes up the entire sub- 
ject. Reviews seek principles and show both pupil and teacher 
where the weakness is if these principles cannot be recalled and 
applied. The review partakes of the nature of comparisons, con- 
trasts or working over of daily generalizations into more com- 
prehensive general truths, and then the broader application of 
these larger rules and principles in the more extended field where 
they may properly belong. They are summaries of the broader 
principles that have been developed from week to week. 

120. — Assigning and Conducting. 

The assignment of review lessons is an exercise of peculiar 
importance. Keeping a note book of daily assignments makes it 
easy to assign good review lessons. It cannot be done hastily and 
by pages of text alone. Definite tasks must be marked out for 
pupils to accomplish. These should be of such nature that he 
must do some thinking for himself. A hasty conning of pages of 
the text studied in past weeks is not sufficient effort to be dignified 
as a review. There probably should be little new matter, and 
possibly none at all suggested for the investigation, but the ques- 
tions and directions given at assignment should be such as to re- 
quire him to approach each topic and work out his answers in a 
different way from the one taken when he studied it for the first 



REVIEWS. 245 

time. In making assignments of reviews, tables of contents, 
topical outlines, and the index of the book should be freely used. 
When the class appears for recitation questions may be given out, 
topics assigned, drawings required, models and diagrams put be- 
fore the class as each one's part in gathering up the results of the 
work. A part of each review should be written and much should 
be oral. It is not possible to be too particular that pupils shall 
express themselves definitely and clearly, and that definitions, 
principles and rules shall be carefully carried in mind and stated 
accurately. In fact, the review should just add here another oper- 
ation to what is daily done in having pupils talk from what they 
know and not from what they think, excepting when it is a question 
of opinion of a conclusion from their own judgment and reasoning. 
Some reviews should come when not expected. There is no bet- 
ter exercise for the mind in making it ready for the daily incidents 
and surprises of life than taking it when off guard and letting the 
pupil see what he can do when he is most at the mercy of cir- 
cumstances. These unexpected reviews lead to a command of 
one's powers and a readiness in calling up desired knowledge that 
are valuable qualifications in the stern affairs of daily life. They 
should have something to do in preparing a person to meet re- 
sponsibilities without becoming "so scared he couldn't think." 
No time need be lost if the class exercise is finished before the 
time has expired (a thing that rarely occurs with a teacher that 
is full of the subject and a class that is interested) for that is a 
good opportunity to give some of these unexpected reviews. 
What the teacher does with these occasional odd moments has 
much to do in showing her power as a teacher. In the history 
and reading classes geographical reviews should be coming up 
constantly, and it is equally valuable when studying a region to 
have facts from history and the reading that may belong with 



246 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

that region stated briefly and quickly. If pupils do not know 
these facts this is probably not the place to turn aside to do a 
great deal of teaching of the other subject, but even then a mem- 
tion could be made of the facts with the suggestion that we shall 
have them fully discussed in the history or reading class. Prin- 
ciples of arithmetic should constantly be coming up in the alge- 
bra class. The concrete problem writing of the pupil in the arith- 
metic class should get its materials from the other subjects 
studied. It is hardly necessary to suggest that there should be 
no definite and set way by which every review is conducted. 
Sometimes it may be by questions, sometimes by materials sug- 
gested from which models embodying pupils' ideas are to be 
made — modeling relief of a region as a pupil's review of these 
points is an example. 

The best and most essential reviews of all, however, are 
those that are made daily in preparing the pupil's mind for 
the advance work and the rehearsal of those facts with the 
new ones in the process of elaboration or comparison and gen- 
eralization, and in application. Finally, it is urged, that each day's 
teaching should be done as though the topic was being handled 
for the last time. This does not mean the making of senseless 
and uninteresting repetitions of the same thing in the same way, 
and sometimes called "drill," but it means rather the working 
over, summarizing and clearly stating the principles learned until 
they will form such definite associations that they may be well 
fixed by the proper application and are ready as preparatory mat- 
ter for advance work. Fellow teachers, see if you are not losing 
time daily and wasting time in stated reviews because things were 
not well organized and fixed in the pupil's mind when you first 
taught him the facts. 



BECOMING A TEACHER. 247 

VI. 
BECOMING A TEACHER. 

121.— Before the First Day of School. 

1. The qualifications that a person must have as required by 
law for the protection of the interests of the children do not seem 
usually to be as high as they should be. These qualifications are 
loosely designated as scholarship, age, and moral character. Cer- 
tain intellectual development is demanded and to attain this and 
the standard of moral judgment, habits of right action, and ideals 
necessary to make one a safe leader of children necessitates some 
maturity which it is assumed is reached at the minimum age at 
which one legally may become a teacher. 

2. Since these qualifications must be found in the would-be 
teacher there must be some power for determining when they arc 
attained. School law has vested this examining power in the 
county superintendent. Back of him stands the state and he is 
merely its agent to do what the law requires. He is often foolishly 
blamed and unjustly abused for doing what the law requires of 
him in accordance with his conscience and oath of office. On 
the other hand he is the legal supervisor of the schools and school 
interests, and it seems too bad that so much of Ms time should be 
taken up with the clerical work of the office that this very im- 
portant part of his work frequently must be neglected and schools 
thus be less efficient than they might otherwise be. 

3. After the aspirant for teacher's honors has met the legal 
tests the next step is to secure the school. In this there is a legal 
side in seeing members of board, securing election, and signing 
contract. The most essential things to which the candidate's 



248 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

attention should be called are those that have a bearing on con- 
vincing the board of his fitness for the place he seeks. The cer- 
tificate is the legal recommendation of the superintendent that 
the person is qualified so far as his tests can show. One or two 
testimonials from other well known persons may be useful. The 
practice of going about with a pocket full of "to-whom-it-may- 
concern" statements should be discouraged. If one grows he 
should soon outgrow the statements that the maker ought at first 
to dare to write, and if he does not grow he should not be carry- 
ing about a list of papers that on the face of them give more 
credit than he deserves. Sometimes a teacher is recommended 
in this indefinite way with the understanding that he is a can- 
didate for some particular school, and later the same paper is 
used when trying to secure a position for which the writer would 
fear to recommend him. This is unfair to all concerned. One 
should protect his friends by not asking for these general state- 
ments. There is another side to the matter of securing the favor 
of school officers that is in great measure within the hands of the 
teacher. This has reference to the tact, judgment, manner, and 
general appearance of the candidate when making application. 
A modest but frank and positive manner carries weight. Proper 
dress, good language, recognition of human nature in seeing how 
to approach a stranger, and similar qualifications are very essen- 
tial. These are things in which one may improve if he tries to be 
observing and thoughtful. 

4. When he receives his contract and the key to the school 
house is given him there are still many things to do. He should 
know before the day for school to open in what condition the 
house is to be found. Heating, ventilation, necessary apparatus 
should be understood. If in the country and he is to do janitor 
work he should see that the house is swept and dusted. Condition 



BECOMING A TEACHER. 249 

of grounds, and well or other accomodations for securing water 
should be noted and any thing that can reasonably be done should 
be done to make everything ready for the first morning. Within 
the school house the teacher's desk should be looked over and the 
contents examined, as a means of knowing just what may be at 
hand that may be useful All apparatus and books should be put 
in order so as to be ready for the use of pupils and teacher when 
needed. The register left in the district by the previous teacher 
should be obtained. From this the names and classification of 
pupils may be learned. From the program left by the previous 
teacher a temporary program for the first few days should be made 
out. It would be a kind thing for the retiring teacher to suggest 
what changes in the program he leaves would in his judgment best 
adapt it to the opening of the next term. Also each teacher on 
leaving a school might leave in the desk or register a plat of the 
room showing the seating as he had it. Suggestions as to any 
changes that he would think advisable would be in order here too. 
If no plat is 'left the teacher about to take charge should make one 
and have it ready to put names of pupils on it as they are seated 
the first day as a means of learning names and characteristics 
more quickly. It would likewise be a kind thing for the teacher 
at the close of the term to suggest to the pupils that they should 
take hold earnestly with the new teacher and not quote the ways 
of past teachers to him. Another thing that should be determined 
before the first day is the lessons that will be assigned the first 
morning. By borrowing or purchasing the teacher should have 
access to the books that are used and settle in his own mind the 
lessons he will assign at the opening of school the first morning. 
The better his preparation is for these assignments and for teach- 
ing the same lessons the more hope there is for his ultimate suc- 
cess. 



250 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

llili.-^The First Day. 

It is an important hour in the life of any young person when 
he as teacher calls school for the first time. His success for the 
entire term in great measure depends on the outcome of the next 
few hours. If he can start well and have every thing going in 
a few minutes now he is sure of the co-operation of most of his 
pupils from the outset. Hesitancy, uncertainty, and delays are 
verv dangerous just at this time. A few brief admonitions are 
given for the benefit of the young teacher. Be calm. Make no 
set speech. Say very little and make that little effective by going 
to the point and speaking so that you may readily be understood. 
Unless there has been some definite custom as to opening exer- 
cises, or you are exceptionally sure of your own powers, have no 
definite opening exercises the first morning, but proceed at once 
to get the school to work. There will be a moment of expectancy 
when all will be quiet. That is the teacher's time to make his 
beginning. If pupils are old enough and there are enough pres- 
ent to make it worth while, slips of paper may be passed to get 
the names and ages of pupils. Direct clearly just what is to be 
put on the papers and how it is to be done before any begin to 
write. Extra pencils should be in the hands of the teacher to 
supply the boy and girl that will be likely to be without pencils. 
The teacher should manage to have pupils help in passing these 
things so that he may remain quietly at the front of the room to 
direct. In small schools or with small children the taking of 
names may best be done at the first recitation. Whatever may be 
done in this respect assignments of work ought to be promptly 
made. It is pardonable here to make assignments quickly and not 
go into detail as in ordinary class work, for so many are waiting 
that not much time can be given to each class. In an ungraded 
school the larger pupils should be given assignments and started 



BECOMING A TEACHER. 251 

at their studying, and then more time may be given to those just 
starting. All should be at work as soon as possible. The tempo- 
rary program should be followed and recitations taken up 
promptly. The teacher that goes through the first half day well 
has made a good beginning, and by keeping eyes and ears open 
and mind alert should make the term's work a success. 



252 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

VII. 
FRIDAY NOON TO MONDAY NOON. 

The high regard in which the school week is held as the 
chief element in the education of the child unconsciously leads 
most people to overlook the importance of the three days from 
Friday noon to Monday noon as a factor in his development. In 
this time there are two half days of school that can be said to be- 
long scarcely more to the school week than to the two days that 
are given up to activities decidedly outside the school. Every ex- 
perienced teacher has recognized that Friday afternoon and Mon- 
day forenoon have difficulties peculiarly their own. These are by 
no means duplicate difficulties. Those of Friday are not found to 
be repeated on Monday. 

123. — Friday- Afternoon Restlessness. 

In a general way there comes with Friday afternoon a ner- 
vous, uneasy feeling among the pupils and a marked tendency to 
relaxation in study and recitation. The custom of having special 
day exercises may have something to do with the appearance of 
this feeling on Friday but not all is due to that. In fact, it may be 
argued with a reasonable hope of making the proof conclusive 
that the custom is as much or more the outgrowth of the con- 
ditions just named than that these conditions are the results of 
customs of the past. With people in general, there seems to be 
a tendency to slacken the pace as the end of the course is neared. 
This may help to account for the feeling that steals its way into 
the school toward the close of the week. Graduating classes in 
our higher institutions feel that much of the joy of graduation is 



FRIDAY NOON TO MONDAY NOON. 253 

destroyed if the regular exercises are rigidly continued up to the 
opening of commencement week. The last few hours of service 
before his furlough begins is the hardest time for the veteran. In 
much the same light do the tasks of Friday afternoon present 
themselves to the pupils of the ordinary public school. Saturday 
with its attractive changes and the Sabbath with still other modes 
of life are just ahead to awaken a new interest and a sense of ex- 
pectancy. In spite of all efforts to prevent it these things project 
themselves forward a number of hours and disturb the mental 
poise of the school on Friday afternoon. Closing at noon on Fri- 
day will not meet the difficulty. That would simply intensify it. 
The real problem is not in avoiding Friday afternoon but to adapt 
the work, for a part of the time at least, to the changed mental 
state of the school. The work of Friday afternoon should in some 
measure prepare the pupil to close his week of school with a feel- 
ing of satisfaction and a desire to return to it at the opening of the 
next week. 

124— Saturday. 

Before discussing the specific exercises in the school best 
adapted to Friday afternoon and Monday forenoon it may be well 
to pause for a brief study of the way in which Saturday and Sunday 
may contribute to the education of the child. Life is larger in sug- 
gestiveness than any person is able to work out in full. Every 
properly balanced child and all natural adults find things all the 
time that they wish to do, not because these things are a part oi 
the regular routine of duties, but rather because they are not of 
the regular type. Most of these avocations are suggested by the 
duties that belong to the vocation of the individual. In the educa- 
tion of the child it is extremely important that he should be given 
opportunity to set himself at tasks that he imposes upon himself 



254 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

and that are the outgrowth of his own desires instead of their 
being those assigned him by parent or teacher. Saturday is the 
clearing up day for just such things by the pupils of the schools. 
The school should assign no direct lessons to be prepared on 
Saturday. Also the parents should be wise enough not to impose 
tasks that will hold the child for the full day to what is given him 
to do. He should do some things every day because there is 
necessity for his doing them regardless of his own whims, but he 
must also have some time that is his own so long as he shows a 
disposition to use it in ways that are legitimate. Boys making 
stilts, digging caves in the back lot, or arranging stamp collections 
are not necessarily unprofitably employed. Girls dressing dolls, 
preparing for imaginary tea parties, or playing at housekeeping 
are not wasting time. These things they would do a great deal 
regardless of the school, it is true, but there is no Saturday that 
passes that does not work out something in the life of the pupil 
that was in a measure planned at school or through school associ- 
ations. There is another feature of the value of the time out of 
school that must not be disregarded. Every mind is more or less 
crowded by the multiplicity of impressions that are forcing them- 
selves into it through the senses. When this is long continued 
without opportunity for the mental products to adjust themselves 
and allow the mind to feel at home with the new groups of ideas 
thus formed there is injury to the faculties and a desire to escape 
from the disturbing cause. In consequence of this there must be 
vacations, rest periods, and change of occupation. The Saturday 
holiday, while it may seem to have grown up through blind cus- 
tom alone, is as important in its way as any other day in the week. 
It is then that the mind of the child has an opportunity to "stretch 
itself out" and assume the new proportions that it naturally de- 
mands because of the enriched experiences of the week. There 



FRIDAY NOON TO MONDAY NOON. 255 

is an unbending, in a measure, but it is not that of assuming the 
original form as the good bow does when unstrung. This is the 
period for the readjusting of the mind and the nestling away of the 
new ideas that have found lodgment, all of which must wait to be 
put into use before they can become a part of the real life of the 
child. It is this provision of nature for taking care of impressions 
that have been temporarily stored that makes the vacation days 
valuable. Just in line with this thought is the seemingly paradox- 
ical statement of the German professor who said that we learn to 
skate in summer and to swim in winter. We begin the process in 
the proper season but it takes full possession later. Thus in the 
same way do the out-of-school days each week reinforce and make 
effective the teaching of the regular school days. The school 
should recognize this fact and adjust itself to it. 

125.— The Sabbath Influences. 

There are certain ways in which the Sabbath should be 
regarded among the influences determining the pupil's education. 
Like Saturday it gives time for the unconscious adjustment of the 
mind and spirit to the accumulated revelations of the week. But 
in its own nature it has a specific place that no other day supplies. 
Even in families where there is no distinct religious teaching given 
on that day there is such decided change in the attitude toward 
the ordinary affairs of life that a new train of ideas is aroused and 
new associations between these and former ideas made. The child 
notices the closing up of the business affairs of the week on Satur- 
day. The Sabbath brings about the Saturday evening's bathing 
and the dressing in clean clothing on Sabbath morning. In the 
most earless families and communities there is always some rec- 
ognition of this day as a holiday for sight seeing, or for visiting, 
at least. The Sunday dinner has an effect in marking out this 



256 THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

day as different from others. It may also have a decided influence 
on the pupil's work in school on Monday. The religious ob- 
servance of the Sabbath has a power in education not fully recog- 
nized in many cases. Even if the child does not attend religious 
services himself or is not a member of a Sunday school class he 
has his attention attracted in that direction by the attitude of 
neighbors and friends toward such things. The most lawless of 
people notice this day because of the opportunity that it gives for 
their criminal practices. All these things combine to draw the 
pupil away from the experiences of the week. Then in cases 
where he is a regular attendant at church and Sabbath school the 
impressions of separation from the week day occupations become 
still more marked. Thus it is seen that the hush of business and 
the cessation of the ordinary week-day duties, bathing and chang- 
ing clothing, the Sunday dinner, sight seeing and visiting, the 
habits of Sabbath observance on the part of his neighbors and 
friends, and possibly his own attendance at church and Sabbath 
school combine to impress upon the ordinary child a line of 
thought only remotely connected with the fundamental activities 
of the school. The anticipation of these Saturday and Sabbath 
experiences weakens his hold upon his powers the latter part of 
the school week, and the participation in them for these two days 
starts other positive trains of thought that must be subordinated 
before he is ready again for the best work in his regular studies. 
These conditions are not to be regretted. They have their value. 
Neither can they be ignored in planning the work of the school. 
The occupations of the child on the other days of the week modify 
his life on Saturday and the Sabbath. These in turn must modify, 
certain parts, at least, of the school days. 



FRIDAY NOON TO MONDAY NOON. 257 

126. — Friday=Afternoon Exercises. 

To meet these conditions, imposed from the outside, a part 
of the time of most of the Friday afternoons should be given up to 
exercises related to the regular work but conducted in a different 
manner. This work should be of a general nature, suggestive 
of things that have been done in the school and so conducted that 
every pupil will have something to do, in some part of the exer- 
cise. This is a good time for drills on mechanical operations and 
things that need fixing in mind through repetition. Some time 
snould be given to literary or rhetorical programs but even these 
should in great measure grow up from the committing of quota- 
tions and extracts in general exercises, from reports and discus- 
sions in history, or from the literature studied in the readers and 
supplementary work. The old-fashioned spelling match should 
not be over-looked. Contests in the fundamentals of arithmetic, 
letter writing, language, and other subjects may be given. Geo- 
graphical games or drills and historical events furnish much profit- 
able employment for this time. In proper seasons a study of the 
native trees and birds out of doors is of especial value. Exercise 
on prominent historical characters, musicians, artists should be 
given at appropriate times near certain birthdays or other special 
events. The stamp collecting excitement can be utilized for pro- 
fitable Friday afternoon exercises by the wideawake teacher. The 
collection of pictures of authors and other prominent personages 
should give much material for profitable employment of this time. 
What the world would be if ships never had been invented and the 
modern ship industry and ocean travel can furnish very profitable 
discussion for one or more afternoons according to the grade in 
which it is tried. Overland travel and transportation in different 
ages and in different places at the present time can be made very 
interesting. An exercise on the social and religious customs of the 
various peoples of the earth works in nicely with geography and 



liOS THE TEACHER AT WORK. 

history. Musical programs can be given without any especial 
musical talent if school songs are utilized. A part of the time of 
this musical program may well be devoted to discussions of the 
sentiment or meanings of the words of the songs, the occasions 
inducing the writing of the songs — when these are known — 
stories of the lives of the great hymn and song writers. Bible 
characters coupled with familiar allusions in our best literature 
that requires some knowledge of the Bible may furnish a profit- 
able exercise occasionally. It should be remembered that these 
are to be Bible characters and not church dignitaries of any de- 
nomination and thus there could be no objection on the part of 
any one, as a knowledge of the Bible from this standpoint is sim- 
ply one of the elements even of an ordinary education. These 
topics are intended merely as suggestions. There is no space to 
arrange programs. The thoughtful and resourceful teacher will 
have little trouble in that. Other things will come to the mind of 
the reader and it is this that is desired in preparing these thoughts. 
A few cautions are ventured. While these afternoons should be 
made pleasant it should be remembered that mere entertainment 
is not the chief purpose. The exercises should have educational 
value. They should be based as nearly as possible on some recent 
work of the school or upon something that is attracting especial 
attention about the time that they are given. It should be made 
possible that all pupils in the room may have some part in them 
each time. Nearly all the public part should come from the pupils, 
the teacher is simply the hidden mentor that inspires and sets the 
others at work. 

127.— Monday=Forenoon Lessons. 

While the closing work of Friday afternoon may be general 
and of the nature of drills that of Monday forenoon should be 



FRIDAY NOON TO MONDAY NOON. 259 

specific and of a kind to concentrate the attention and call back 
prominent facts and related principles. It should be planned to, 
bring the wandering mind into systematic operation again by re- 
quiring it to center its attention on special things already known 
or easily apprehended through the pupil's own thinking. A part 
of the class recitation period in all the subjects on Monday, or 
especially on Monday forenoon, can most profitably be devoted 
to oral and written reviews of those especial things in the study 
of the past week or two that bear most directly upon the advance 
and that will best prepare the mind for taking up the advanced 
steps. These are not weekly examinations to test the pupil's pro- 
gress but should be such exercises as are necessary to arouse 
clear ideas in the way of preparation for what is to follow. They 
have the nature of reviews but are to be looked upon as introduc- 
ing what is to come rather than as finishing what has been studied 
in the past. Principles should be sought instead of masses of 
facts. The assignments for Monday should be such as to try the 
pupil's powers of judgment and his personal resources instead of 
making them memory tests or laying out advanced territory to 
be explored. They should be as much as possible the applications 
of what he has already discussed in previous lessons. The latter 
part of the recitation period proper should be given to a clear 
survey of the ground to be covered in the remaining days of the 
school week. Very careful and clear assignment should be made 
of the lessons for Tuesday so that there may be thoughtful study: 
from the first of the new week. The work must be pushed vigor- 
ously for the remainder of the time that the school is in session 
during the weekly period. In this way there will be that rythmic 
movement of intense application and lighter occupation so very 
essential to the growth of mind and character. 



INDEX 



The dark faced figures refer to section titles not to pages. The other 
figures that follow the dark characters are the numbers of paragraphs under 
that title. 



Accuracy, of teacher, 8, 8, 20, 23, 
98, 1, 3, 
of pupils, 36, 2, 84. 

Aim, of lesson, 14, 1, 16, 2, 113, 
4, 29, 30, 32, 

in organization, 95, 

of questioning, 35, 38, 4, 

of reading, GO, 

of teacher, 13, 34, 

of texts, 29, 5, 30, 1, 

value of, 98, 2. 

Arithmetic, accuracy, 84, 
devices, 48, 54, 86, 
drills, 83, 86, 1, 
guide plan, 17, 4, 
imaging, S^ t 
memory work, 83, 84, 
metric system, 86, 7, 54. 

Assignments, following, 21, 
of history, 81, 
importance of, 4, 15, 18, 19, 

31, 
manner of teacher, 4, 14-22, 

21, 22, 
of reiding, 60, 61, 
of reviews, 12G, 
teacher's preparation, 4, 13, 

19, 22, 121, 4, 
time, 4, 15, 21. 

Attention, 

device to secure, 98, 2, 
during assignment, 8, 7, 20, 
effects of position on, 8, 6, 
effects of seating on, 8, 26, 98, 2, 
holding. 7, 23, 24, 
key to, 42. 

Becoming" a teacher, 113. 



Blackboard, 

care of, 8, 18, 48, 3, 
use of, 48, 75, 86, 5. 

Care of room, 3, 8, 11, 113, 1, 
121,4. 

Child study, 7, 25, 6, 1, 34, 
lO, 15, HO, 8. 

Class, 

disorder in, 8, 2, 
management, 7, 
moving, 2, 98, 2, 
seating, 7,2, 8, 26, 121,4, 
teacher's knowledge of, 5, 4, 
14, 2 and 3. 

Clippings, SO. 

Compensation, 109. 

Confidence, how won, 98, HO. 

Co-operation, 

in government, 97, 105, 

of parents and others, 94, 1 lO, 

means of obtaining, 94, 95. 

Correlation, 

with other work, 12, 8, 29, 

57, 78, 92, 
with outside knowledge, 69, 

70. 

County Superintendent, 121* 
Crayon box, 54. 

Criticisms, 

in training school, 12, 
in observation, 11, 112, 
symbols used in, 12, 14. 



INDEX — Continued. 



Devices, 

in arithmetic, 48, 54, 86, 
blackboard, 48, 80, 5, 
collecting material for, 50, 
in geography, 51, 52, 53, 

72-77, 
in grammar, 92, 1, 
in history, 81, 
illustration, 41 , 47, 
making, 51-54, 
in physiology, 54, 9(), 
pictures and charts, 49, 
questioning, 33-40, 
in reading, 54, 62, 2, 
in spelling, 67, 
text book, 23-27, 
opening exercises, 115. 

Dictionary, use of, 55, 1, 2. 

Discipline, 99-105, 
means of, 103, 
need of, 100, 102, 

use of quotations in, 104, 
spirit of teacher, 8, 35, 36, 40, 

lOl, 103, 
spirit of pupil, 105, 
suggestions for, 8,18, 

Dismissals, 105, 4. 

Disordor, 

causes, 100, 
control of, 8, 2. 

Dress of teacher, 8, 38, 121 , 3. 

Duplicates, making of, 51, 52. 

Enlarging, 51, 3. 

Exercises, 

opening, 114, 1 15, 

Friday P. M., 126, 
Monday, 127. 

First day, 112. 

Friday, 

exercises, 126, 

interval to Monday noon, 123- 
127. 



Geography, 
books, 79, 

correlation, 78, 

devices, 49-54, 72-78, 

guide plan, 17,2, 

previous knowledge, 70, 71, 

purpose, 68, 

Grammar, 93. 

History, 

correlation, 80, 

devices, 46, 50-53, 81, 

drills, 82, 115,7, 

guide plan, 17,3, 
text-book, 81. 

Illustration, 

in arithmetic, 43, 54, 86, 

books on, 1 16, 

definition, 43, 44, 

devices for, 47, 

in geography, 69-79, 

in history, 81, 

improvements in, 46. 116, 

117, 

in language, 92, 
material for, 50-54, 
in physiology, 87-90, 
qualities of, 45, 
suggestions, 6, 
value of, 41, 43. 

Illustrative plans, 17. 

Imaging, 

magnitudes, 85, 
pictures, 50, 80. 

Index, value of, 

in reviews, 82, 9, 120, 
to teacher, 29, 9, 30, 2. 

Judgment, 8, 34, 100. 

Justice, 8, 22, lOl, 5. 

Language. 

corrections, 91, 6, 92, 4, 
devices, 48, 50, 92, 
purpose, 93, 3, 
teacher's, 16, 2, 5, 9, 4, 14, 

7, 15, 36, 3, 
written work, 91. 



INDEX — Continued. 



Lesson, 

assignment of, 18, 19, 21, 

22, 
plan, 13-17, 
see reading, etc. 

Management, 7, 96, 99, 

foundation, 96, 
co-operation, 5)7, 1, 105, 
qualifications for, 98, 
relation to discipline, 99, 
relation to organization, 9.5, 6, 
teacher's spirit, 97, 2. 

Manner, teacher's, 9, 39, 113, 2. 

Maps, 51, 
relief, 53, 
use of, 72, 73, 2. 

Neatness, 

in dress, 8, 38, 121, 3, 

in room, 3, 1, 

in work, 7, 3, 8, 18, 91. 

Observation, 

spirit of, 11, HO, 
points for, 1 13. 

Opening Exercises, 

first day, 122, 
materials, 115, 
purposes, 114, 

Plan Book, 16. 

Plans, 

illustrative, 17, 
parts of, 15, 16, 2. 

Planning Lessons, 
definition, 13, 
necessity for, 13, 
teacher's knowledge, 14, 
suggestions, 4, 1-13. 

Physiology, 

• illustrations, 54, 90, 
method of presentation, 87-89, 
purpose, 90. 

Previous Knowledge, 4, 3, 7, 
13, 19, 27, 2, 70, 71, 
98, 2. 

Principles of Practice. 1. 



Program, 95, 4, 121, 4, 122. 

Qualifications, 

of a disciplinarian, 101, 
of a teacher, 97, 98, lOl, 
116, 121. 

Questioning. 

before reading, 58, 

books on, 40, 

good, 36, 

improvement in, 38, 

of pupils, 40, 

purposes, 35, 

qualifications for, 34, 

suggestions for, 5, 

value, 33, 

wrong management in, 37. 

Quotations, 

use in discipline, 8, 39, 114; 
in opening exercises, 115, 5, 
on childhood, HO, 8. 

Heading, 

teacher's, 62, 111, 1, 116, 
117, 

books on, 59, 
aim,60, 61, 
guide plan, 17, 1, 
mechanics of, 55 9 56, 
suggestions for teaching, 55-62 
problems, 86, 1, 
reviews, 56. 

Recitation, 

beginning of, 26, 
importance, 23, 
purposes, 24, 26, 27, 

general, 25, 26, 

special, 17-21. 

Recommendations, 121, 3. 

Reference Books, 
list, 117, 
use of, 4, 22. 

Reviews , 

assigning, 120, 

of history, 82, 115, 7, 

nature of, 119. 



INDEX— Continued. 



Reviews— Continued. 

necessity for, 19, 118, 120, 
time, 118, 
reading, 56. 

Sabbath, 125. 

Saturday, 124. 

School Board, 121, 2. 

Spelling, 

devices, 67, 

suggestions for teaching, 64-67 

of teacher, 98, 1, 

value of, 63, 

errors, 12, 10, 66. 

Study, 

course of, 123, 

manner of, 26, 

teacher's, 21, 22, 98, 1, 26, 

time for, 22. 

Sympathy, 

see teacher's spirit. 

The Teacher, 

becoming a, 121, 122, 
compensations of, 109, 
dress of, 8, 38, 121,3, 
improvement of, 46, 109, 

117,118, 
manner of, 8, 37, 9, 39, 1 13, 
2,121,3. 



The Teacher— Continued. 

qualifications of, 98, 1G1, 

116, 121, 
reading of, 62, 111,1, 116, 

117, 
social life, HO, 6, 
spirit of, lO, 24, 25, 1G6, 

111. 

Thought Unit, 15, 

Text Books, 

care of, 8, 9, 10, 

a device, 28, 

a good, 29, 

geographical, 60, 68, 

historical, 73, 

mastery of, 22, 30, 2, 31, 

93,2, 
mistakes in use of, 7, 28, 32, 
helps in, 4, 7,^18-20, 82, 9, 
use of, 30, 1, 31. 

Vim, lO, 8, 22, 39, 2. 

Visitor, 

spirit of, 11, 112, 

spirit toward, lO, 12, HO. 

Vivacity, lO, G, 7, 39, 1, 41. 

Voice, 

pupil's, 56, 59, 

teacher's, 9, 10, 39, 1. 



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